Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Pisces (Psc)  ·  Contains:  M 74  ·  NGC 628
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M74, The Phantom Galaxy, Rob Foster
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M74, The Phantom Galaxy

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M74, The Phantom Galaxy, Rob Foster
Powered byPixInsight

M74, The Phantom Galaxy

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Description

Desperate to do any imaging, I had a few "clear hours" on back to back nights this week with a nearly full moon, so I picked a target near the meridian and got what I could of M74. Also known as NGC 628, The Phantom Galaxy earns its nickname because of its low surface brightness. Per Wikipedia, it is the most difficult Messier object to directly observe, and at  an apparent size of 10'.5 x 9'.5, not a very large target for astrophotographers. Though it could clearly use more data, that won't be anytime soon with the miserable forcast for the next few weeks.

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M74, The Phantom Galaxy, Rob Foster