Dragan
May 1st, 2018, 05:04 PM
M94
Canes Venatici
NGC4736
UGC7996
RA 12 50.9 53.1
DEC 41 07 14
Size 14.3’ x 12.1’
Mag 8.2
Although there are other galaxies worthy of a peek - M106 for one - quite often when we think of Canes Venatici, we typically think of one object and one object alone, M51. And why not? It is the quintessential face-on spiral galaxy that looks more and more as its namesake as aperture increases – somewhat of a rarity in deepsky objects. But within Canes lies another beautiful face-on that deserves a spot as an OOTW.
Discovered in 1781 by French astronomer Pierre Méchain, M94 was confirmed and cataloged by Charles Messier several days later, hence the M designation. M94 is a unique object. It’s one of the closest galaxies to our own Milky Way lying a mere 16 million light-years. It is the***** “anchor” galaxy for what is known as the M94 group, or CVn I cloud. In 1975, DeVaucouleurs described this group as a loose and scattered grouping containing 16-24 galaxies lying approximately 14-20 million light years away. He also included M106 as part of the M94 group but that was refuted in 1992 when its redshift showed it was much further away.
Another unique feature of M94 is that it’s one of, if not the closest, ring galaxy to us. M94 has 2 rings surrounding its nucleus. The inner ring has an apparent diameter of 70 arcseconds and is in area of intense star formation. Wikipedia names such a ring a “starburst” ring. It’s outer ring appears to be different than the inner ring though. In IR and UV images, the outer ring is actually a complex spiral arm structure, giving the galaxy the appearance of 2 rings. Studies show that the outer ring is a superior star forming region to the inner.. Essentially, although the inner ring forms more stars, it does it at a greater expense of energy and matter.
Visually, M94 is a pleasing view in telescopes. Much like M51, the more aperture you employ, the better your view. Heck, that’s nearly every object, isn’t it? M94 typically exhibits a bright nucleus, stellar in smaller scopes and a quite apparent and extended disk in larger scopes. The inner core appears as a disk-like oval surrounding the brighter nucleus and spiral structure and mottling is often seen in scopes as small as the 12 to 15 inch range.
So the question now is….. Who has seen both rings? Did the inner ring ever present itself as a true “ring” or has it always appeared to you as a disk? And have you seen the outer ring as a “ring”? Or has it always presented itself as arms? I’m very curious to what some of our observations will be!
And as always,
“Give it a go and let us know!”
Canes Venatici
NGC4736
UGC7996
RA 12 50.9 53.1
DEC 41 07 14
Size 14.3’ x 12.1’
Mag 8.2
Although there are other galaxies worthy of a peek - M106 for one - quite often when we think of Canes Venatici, we typically think of one object and one object alone, M51. And why not? It is the quintessential face-on spiral galaxy that looks more and more as its namesake as aperture increases – somewhat of a rarity in deepsky objects. But within Canes lies another beautiful face-on that deserves a spot as an OOTW.
Discovered in 1781 by French astronomer Pierre Méchain, M94 was confirmed and cataloged by Charles Messier several days later, hence the M designation. M94 is a unique object. It’s one of the closest galaxies to our own Milky Way lying a mere 16 million light-years. It is the***** “anchor” galaxy for what is known as the M94 group, or CVn I cloud. In 1975, DeVaucouleurs described this group as a loose and scattered grouping containing 16-24 galaxies lying approximately 14-20 million light years away. He also included M106 as part of the M94 group but that was refuted in 1992 when its redshift showed it was much further away.
Another unique feature of M94 is that it’s one of, if not the closest, ring galaxy to us. M94 has 2 rings surrounding its nucleus. The inner ring has an apparent diameter of 70 arcseconds and is in area of intense star formation. Wikipedia names such a ring a “starburst” ring. It’s outer ring appears to be different than the inner ring though. In IR and UV images, the outer ring is actually a complex spiral arm structure, giving the galaxy the appearance of 2 rings. Studies show that the outer ring is a superior star forming region to the inner.. Essentially, although the inner ring forms more stars, it does it at a greater expense of energy and matter.
Visually, M94 is a pleasing view in telescopes. Much like M51, the more aperture you employ, the better your view. Heck, that’s nearly every object, isn’t it? M94 typically exhibits a bright nucleus, stellar in smaller scopes and a quite apparent and extended disk in larger scopes. The inner core appears as a disk-like oval surrounding the brighter nucleus and spiral structure and mottling is often seen in scopes as small as the 12 to 15 inch range.
So the question now is….. Who has seen both rings? Did the inner ring ever present itself as a true “ring” or has it always appeared to you as a disk? And have you seen the outer ring as a “ring”? Or has it always presented itself as arms? I’m very curious to what some of our observations will be!
And as always,
“Give it a go and let us know!”