Messier 74 (NGC 628) - wonderfuluniverse.de

Messier 74 (NGC 628) from Banon

In 2011 I imaged Messier 74 during a holiday in Banon, France, using my DSLR equipment. The dark rural skies of the region provided ideal conditions for capturing this delicate galaxy, which is known for its very low surface brightness and therefore benefits greatly from long exposures and minimal light pollution.

Messier 74, also catalogued as NGC 628, is one of the finest examples of a grand-design spiral galaxy. Located about 32 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces, it spans roughly 95,000 light-years, making it slightly smaller than the Milky Way but comparable in overall structure. Its face-on orientation offers an unobstructed view of its beautifully symmetric spiral arms, which are rich in H II regions—glowing clouds of ionized hydrogen that trace areas of active star formation. M74 has hosted several notable core-collapse supernovae, including the broad-line Type Ic event SN 2002ap, and it possesses a faint, extended stellar halo that is of particular interest for deep imaging studies. The combination of scientific interest and aesthetic appeal makes M74 a rewarding but challenging target, and imaging it under the dark skies of Banon provided the opportunity to capture its subtle structure in detail.

Data calibration and registration was done with DeepSkyStacker and the final processing was done with PixInsight. The result was as follows: