Messier 100 (NGC 4321)

In 2022 I had the opportunity to image Messier 100 (M100) during a stay at the Astrofarm Tivoli in Namibia, using a 16″ astrograph and a CCD camera in full LRGB. The exceptionally dark southern skies and the large aperture allowed me to capture a remarkably deep dataset. The final image shows M100 prominently in the center while revealing a wealth of background galaxies scattered across the field—an impressive demonstration of how rich the Virgo Cluster region truly is. A cropped version of the image provides a more detailed, high-resolution look at the galaxy itself, highlighting its elegant grand-design spiral structure, well-defined arms, and the bright star-forming regions embedded within them.

From a scientific perspective, Messier 100 (also catalogued as NGC 4321) is one of the closest and best-studied grand-design spirals in the Virgo Cluster, located about 55 million light-years away. Its nearly face-on orientation makes it an ideal target for investigating spiral arm dynamics, star formation, and galactic bar structures. M100 has also hosted several Type II supernovae, which have contributed valuable data to the calibration of the extragalactic distance scale. The combination of its astrophysical importance and visual beauty makes M100 a rewarding object to image—especially under the pristine skies of Namibia.

Data calibration, image registration, integration, and advanced post-processing of the 2022 image were performed in PixInsight.