Messier 106
March 22, 2026
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Messier 106 (M106), discovered by Charles Messier’s colleague Pierre Méchain in 1781, is about 24 million light years away from us in Canes Venatici. Messier didn’t actually add it to his catalogue. Helen Sawyer Hogg added it in 1947 along with M105 and M107.
M106 contains a very active supermassive black hole with a mass of 40 million suns at its center. Scientists believe that it’s this black hole that is responsible for warping the plane of the galaxy and spewing jets of gas above the plane. At least one such red jet is visible in the image above left of the core of the galaxy.
M106 is also surprising because it contains two pairs of spiral arms rather than the more typical single pair. The extra pair primarily comprises heated gas rather than stars and you can see hints of them in the pink areas in the image. Once again, scientists blame the supermassive black hole for this phenomenon.
Planewave CDK12.5
Telescope
Finder Chart
Click to expand
Total integration: 48h 23m
Integration per filter:
- Lum/Clear: 8h 42m (174 × 180")
- R: 6h 12m (124 × 180")
- G: 6h 9m (123 × 180")
- B: 6h (120 × 180")
- Hα: 21h 20m (128 × 600")
Coordinates: 12h 15m 51s · +47° 5′ 30″
Image Capture
Location:
Deep Sky West
Camera:
ZWO ASI2400MC-Pro
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