Sniff out the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), the home of the magnificent Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) in the far northern sky, and you’ll find more galaxies than you can shake a stick at. Prominent Messier 106 (NGC 4258) is a superb spiral galaxy that holds its own in the company of the likes of the Sunflower Galaxy (M63) and M94. It’s bright enough to be found through a pair of binoculars and it looks like a galaxy through even a small telescope.
Where to look
Messier 106 is located in the north-western corner of Canes Venatici; sweep with a pair of 10 x 50 binoculars 1.7° south of the star 3 Canum Venaticorum (magnitude +5.2) and on a fine night you should spot a faint smudge of light. M106 is circumpolar (never setting) from UK shores, culminating late-month almost at the zenith at about midnight GMT.
An 80mm telescope (three-inch) can show its elongated disc, orientated south-east to north-west, while upgrading to a 150mm (six-inch) reveals a slightly mottled, oval-shaped core extending to perhaps 10’ x 7’, with a well-defined nucleus surrounded by a faint outer halo of nebulosity.
A big galaxy
Messier 106 is a large galaxy, comparable in size to the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and bears some resemblance to it. With a physical diameter of 135,000 light years and located at a distance of 24 million light years, it presents a substantial apparent diameter in the sky of 18’ x 7.9’. M106 emits strong radio waves from its active core, earning it a Seyfert II classification.
Amateur astronomers now routinely capture stunning images of M106, and widefield data can reveal several smaller galaxies, such as NGC 4217, an appealing edge-on spiral with a prominent dust line visible through a 200mm (eight-inch) telescope. Additionally, located closer to M106, NGC 4248, a smaller irregular galaxy, can be observed through a 300mm (12-inch) telescope.
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