SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
massimo.difusco
Location of Photo:
Ferrara (Italy)
Date/Time of photo:
10/03/2025 02:00
Equipment:
Konus 200/1000 @950mm, Player One Poseidon-C camera, Sky-Watcher Eq6r Pro Mount Optolong L-Quad Enhance filter
Description:
Messier 104 (also known as the Sombrero Galaxy, M104 or NGC 4594) is a majestic unbarred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Virgo. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of 8.98 and lies at a distance of 29.3 million light years from Earth. It occupies an area 8.7 by 3.5 arc minutes in apparent size, corresponding to a linear diameter of about 50000 light years, and it is inclined at an angle of only 7 degrees to our line of sight and appears edge-on. Messier 104 has an incredibly bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a conspicuous dark dust lane in its disk. The appearance of the galactic bulge and the dust lane that crosses in front of it have earned M104 the name Sombrero.
