The Sombrero Galaxy... M 104
(Click on Picture for larger view)

Added April 3, 2019 ...
The Sombrero Galaxy is a spectacular almost edge-on spiral galaxy in Virgo. Its most striking feature is a ring of thick dust encapsulating the galaxy bulge that gives it the appearance of a Sombrero hat. It is about 30 million light-years away and contains about 100 billion stars (as compared to 250 billion in our own Milky Way Galaxy). This galaxy is medium high in the south at 1 am in early April. This is a more difficult target for me as I need to wait until it is near the meridian ... due south ... before I can see it due to its lower altitude in the sky and from trees in the vicinity. This is a 1 hr 12mn exposure.

The Techy Stuff:
The Techy Stuff ... For those who want to know ...
Telescope: Celesron 11" Edge HD at f/7
Mount: Celestron CGX
Guiding: Orion StarShoot AutoGuider Pro & 60mm Scope
Guiding Software: PHD2 ... (RMS Error: 0.39 px)
Camera: Canon T7i (Modified)
Filter: None
Settings: ISO 800 at 180-second exposure
Total sub-frames: 24
25 Dark & Bias frames
Capture Software: Backyard EOS
Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker at 2X Drizzle
Post processing in PixInsight & Photoshop CC
Bortle Light Pollution zone: 4.5 (Barely can see the Milky Way)
Sky Condition: 9.5 [scale of 0 (cloudy) to 10 (clear)]
No Lunar interference
Temperature: 49°- 45°F
Location: My Backyard, Savannah, GA

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This is a picture from April 16, 2018 ... My first capture of the Sombrero galaxy, a 32 minute exposure. I used the Altair Hypercam 183C CMOS camera at gain 50. I had the Celestron 11" scope set at f/10.

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