SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Sean Liang
Location of Photo:
EL SAUCE OBSERVATORY, CHILE
Date/Time of photo:
Feb 2021 – Aug 2021
Equipment:
Planewave CDK24; FLI ProLine PL9000 (Remote Astronomy via Telescope Live)
Description:
The Sombrero Galaxy (also known as M104 or NGC 4594) is a peculiar galaxy with stunning features - a bright nucleus enshrouded by an enormous central bulge and a striking dust ring. Viewing from an almost edge-on angle, the galaxy looks like a shining sombrero floating in space. The dust ring is highly symmetrical and contains most of the galaxy's cold molecular gas. Some hypothesize that an elliptical galaxy collided with a disk galaxy billions of years ago, creating this jaw-dropping maverick. Sombrero is a member of "Virgo II Groups", a band of more than 100 galactic clusters and individual galaxies stretching across the night sky. Many galaxies can be found in this image hiding among the stars: some are spiral, some are elliptical, and most are millions of light-years away. (Credit: the original data was acquired from Telescope Live, which I processed using pixinsight and photoshop).
