The Phantom Galaxy (Messier 74)

Messier 74 aka known as NGC 628 or the Phantom Galaxy is a large spiral galaxy located 32 million lights years away in the constellation Pisces. Consisting of over 100 billion stars, M74 has two beautifully defined spiral arm, making it a perfect example of a Grand Design Spiral galaxy. Over the past two decades, 3 supernovae have been spotted in this galaxy. It was first observed in 1780 by Pierre Marchan and later included in Charles Messier's catalog. In this video, I will show you an image I captured from 10 hours of total integration using my Celestron 8SCT, ZWO 533 MC Pro camera and Starizona NightOwl .40 focal reducer.

If you enjoy this video, please help me build my channel by clicking on the subscribe and like button.

[JoesAstrophoto]

Great video Joe! I've never imaged this one before. I like how you compare it to our Milky Way as well. I would imagine it's very similar to our galaxy.

[Boxxkarr]

Monday, Dec 11, 2023 I visually observed M 74 with a ten inch Dosbonian. I used Stellarium to starhop to it, and with a 22mm Teleview eyepiece, I saw a very faint glow. I had to move the telescope up, down, left and right to make sure the glow was there in the starfield. I switched to a 10mm Baader and using diverted vision I could barely make out the shape, and see a few pin pricks of light, but in dark Bortle 2 - 3 skies this object was dim! As a visual astronomer with no Go To system, this was one of the hardest things I've found on Messier's list! Liked and subbed.

[tomwall]

Hi Joe. Great video. I find you videos very on point for me because I'm using the exact same gear. Question: You set your offset to 50 at unity gain. I have stayed with the default of 70. What advantages are there to adjusting to 50?
Thanks,
Tom,
Tucson