SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Jon Greif
Location of Photo:
Alpine, CA, USA
Date/Time of photo:
May 21-22, 2024, 10 pm to 1 am PDT
Equipment:
SeeStar S50 smart scope. Processed in Pixinsight 1.8.9.
Description:
This is the Sombrero Galaxy, catalogued M104, as seen last night from our Alpine backyard. It is a massive edge-on spiral galaxy located 28 million light years from Earth, in the constellation Virgo. It has a mass equal to 800 billion suns, and harbors a one billion sun mass central black hole . M104 was discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer and comet hunter Pierre Méchain. Image is 2.7 hours of 10 sec exposures (996 in all).
