M106 Galaxy and Friends
M106 is one of the largest and brightest nearby galaxies, with a supermassive black hole in its center. It stretches 150,000 light-years across and resides 25 million light-years from us. Several other galaxies are also visible: NGC4248 is the small one just to the top-right of M106, next along that line are tiny galaxies NGC4231 and NGC4232, in the center of the image and next to the colorful stars is NGC4217, and left and down from there is the smaller galaxy NGC 4226. North is at the top.

Scope/Mount: TS-Optics PhotoLine 130mm F7 APO Refractor with Astro-Tech AT2FF Field-flattener, Celestron CI-700 Mount
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MMC monochrome with ZWO LRGB filters
Guiding: QHY5L-IIM through Orion Deluxe OAG, PHD guiding software
Exposure: L:(90) 120 secs @ gain=139, RGB: each channel (10) 120 sec @ gain=200
Software: Nebulosity, Pixinsight, NoiseXterminator
Comment: 04/17/2026, Tierra del Sol, CA, sub-par transparency. Palette = LRGB.