Object Information:                      M106 (NGC 4258)
                                                    Mag. -  8.4
                                                    Constellation - Canes Venatici
                                                    Distance -  35 million light years,

Object Notes:        M 106 is described in The Night Sky Observers Guide as a "large, massive system with a tightly wound spiral structure tilted 25 degrees to our line of sight."  This barred spiral galaxy is reported to have been first described by Mechain in 1781.  Also note that NGC 4248, a magnitude 13.58 spiral galaxy, can be seen in the upper right corner.

Imaged at:                                   San Diego Astronomy Association site near Tierra del Sol, San Diego County, California
                                                   Elevation - 4,000 feet

Equipment:                                  Optics - Takahashi MT-160 at f/6.3
                                                   Mount - Losmandy G-11,
                                                   Camera - Santa Barbara Instrument Group (SBIG) ST-7E  CCD,
                                                   Focal Reducer/Field Flattener - none,

Exposure Information:                 January 13, 2002
                                                   Stacked sum of three 1800 second exposures, guided with the SBIG STV
                                                   High Resolution Mode (unbinned pixels),

Image Acquisition Software:        CCD Soft ver. 5,

Image Processing Software:        Image calibration and application of DDP processing with AIP for WIndows,  image registration and stacking with Mira 6,  final processing and conversion to JPEG format with Photoshop 6.

Other Notes:       This image is the result of a collaboration between myself and my friend Larry Moss, who provided and ran the SBIG ST-7E camera.