M74
Phantom Galaxy in Pisces

10.1″ f/4.5, Mallincam DS432cTEC
Exposures = 10-15-20-25 sec, Live-stacked frames = 15-15-15-13 (58 total), Gain = 12-11-10-9 of 250

The low surface brightness of this face-on spiral made it very difficult to locate, despite its size; had to increase gain quite a bit to find it against the background stars. Successive exposures though started to reveal the beautiful “grand design” structure of this galaxy. Distance is listed as approximately 32 million light years away. Apparent size of the galaxy in this view is about 6 minutes of arc.

North at 12 o’clock, East at 9 o’clock