NGC 4395 is a low surface brightness spiral galaxy with a halo that is about 8′ in diameter. It has several wide areas of greater brightness running northwest to southeast. The one furthest southeast is the brightest. Three of the patches have their own NGC numbers: 4401, 4400, and 4399 running east to west.

The nucleus of NGC 4395 is active and the galaxy is classified as a Seyfert. It is notable for containing one of the smallest supermassive black hole with an accurately-determined mass. The central black hole has a mass of “only” 300,000 sun masses, which would make it a so-called “intermediate-mass black hole”.

Mount: NEQ6 Pro SynScan
Equipment: Skywatcher Black Diamond ED120 APO
Type of camera: Moravian G2 8300
Exposure time: Moravian G2 LRGB 620:210:150:300
Total: 21h 20 min.
Focal Length: 765 mm with Skywatcher
+ 0,85 Reducer
Distance 4.83 Mpc
Data reduction with PixInsight 1.7, Photoshop

Autor: Dieter Beer

AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI
31 December 2013

We select the best works of amateur astrophotographers with details of equipment, shooting processing etc.