02/17/2018 Latitude: 33 29′ 01.48″ North Longitude: -116 43′ 19.24″ West; 4,321 ft., Jupiter Ridge #4 OCA, CA. Seeing: E Transparency: 5.8 magnitude SQM: 20. 78 Telescopes / Optics: TEC 140mm f/7 980mm Mount: AP1200 GTO. Camera: SBIG ST10xme CCD & CFW10. FOV: 48’ x 32’; FWHM: 1.68-2.61 Filter: Astrodon LRGB series E Gen. Information: M109/NGC 3992 Barred Spiral Galaxy, Captured with CCDSoft; LRGB 190 min; L: 20x300sec, L: x 600sec. RGB: 12 x 300 sec. subs, -20°c. Processed with CCDStack2, Photoshop CS6
M109 /NGC 3992 Barred Spiral Galaxy approximately 83 million light years from Earth located in the Constellation URSA Major (Big Dipper). (location is 11:57.6 (R.A.) and +53:23 (Dec.). This barred spiral galaxy is readily visible through telescopes of 6″ aperture or better. Really looks good in 10″ telescopes at a Dark Sky site. When looking at the M109 /NGC 3992 Barred Spiral Galaxy, remember it is approximately 175,853.82 light years in diameter. (Milky Way is 100,000). M 109’s apparent Magnitude of 10.6 and size 7.6′ x 4.7′ (arc-minute)
The Messier objects were M 1-M 103 discovered and named by Charles Messier (see )until after the fifties when M 104-M 110 were added. M 109 is listed in The New General Catalog it is listed as NGC 3992.
This image was capture through a 5.5″ f/7 TEC refractor using a CCD with KAF 3200me chip cooled to -20c, each exposure was 5 min long 3 for each color channel (RGB) the rest were luminous.