M77
Seyfert galaxy in Cetus

10.1″ f/4.5, Mallincam DS432cTEC with Astronomik UHC filter
Exposure = 10-20-29 sec, Live Stacked frames = 35-20-15 (70 total), Gain = 50 of 250

M77 (bottom) appears here in this view alongside galaxy NGC 1055, at top. M77 is a Seyfert galaxy, the only one of its kind in the Messier catalog; as indicated in Wikipedia, Seyfert’s have “quasar-like nuclei (very luminous, distant and bright sources of electromagnetic radiation) with very high surface brightnesses whose spectra reveal strong, high-ionisation emission lines.” Burnham’s describes “three distinct sets of spiral arms” – a bright inner spiral pattern, seen above as a bright oval core, a second fainter spiral pattern visible here as an open spiral structure with thick knots about 2 arc minutes across, and then a third very faint low surface brightness set of outer arms, not visible here. The star that appears immediately to the left of the galaxy is 10th magnitude. M77 is listed as 47 million light years away.

NGC 1055 (52 million light years away) lies about 30 arc minutes to the north-north west of M77. It is an edge-on spiral that has a distinct pancake shape, slightly inclined with its dark dust lanes on the top-side of the disk.

North at 1 o’clock, East at 10 o’clock