Phantom Galaxy
About this image
Taken from my back garden with a Sky-Watcher 127mm Maksutov, using 280 × 60-second exposures — just over 4 hours 40 minutes of total integration — and processed in PixInsight.
What makes this image fascinating isn’t just the spiral structure. It’s the scale of what you’re actually looking at.
M74 is around 32 million light-years away.
The galaxy itself is around 100,000 light-years across and is thought to contain roughly 100 billion stars, potentially accompanied by hundreds of billions of planets.
Put another way, M74 is about:
188,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles away.
And yet, in astronomical terms, it is still considered a relatively nearby galaxy.
Perhaps the part I find most incredible is this: photons travelled across intergalactic space for 32 million years, only to end their journey on the sensor of a small 127mm telescope sitting in my garden.
Astrophotography isn't really photographing space.
It's photographing time.
Image details
| Object type | galaxy |
|---|---|
| Catalogue | M74, NGC 628, PGC 5974, M 74 – NGC 628 – PGC 5974 – UGC 1149 |
| Constellation | Pisces (Psc) |
| Observed | 2026 Sep 15 – 22:30 UTC |
| Location | Portsmouth, UK |
| Moon | Waxing Crescent – 18% illuminated – age 4.1 days |
| WordPress categories | Galaxies |
Equipment
| Telescope | Skywatcher 127 Mak |
|---|---|
| Camera | ZWO ASI2600MC Pro |
| Mount | Juwei 17 |
| Filter | None |
| Focal length | 1500mm |
| F-ratio | f/11 |
| Pixel scale | 0.52 arcsec/pixel |
Acquisition
| Exposure | 269 x 60s |
|---|---|
| Gain | 100 |
| Guiding RMS | <1.2 |
Observation notes
The 127mm Skywatcher is becoming my favourite scope.
Processing notes
APP and PixInsight
Posted from CityAstroLog.