Galaxies, A Lake, and A Fist

This entry starts with a galaxy in the Canes Venatici, the Hunting Dogs.

M106

This is M106, and friends. It was discovered in 1781 by Pierre Mechain and is about 22 to 25 million light years from earth. One interesting aspect of this galaxy is that it has a water vapor megamaser, which is the equivalent of a laser operating at microwave frequencies instead of at light frequencies and on a galactic scale. According to Wikipedia, this maser enabled the first case of a direct measurement of the distance to a galaxy. Also easily seen in this image are two other galaxies, NGC4231 and NGC4232, the two dim fuzzies near the left edge of the image and NGC 4248 the fuzzy line in between M106 and the other two galaxies. NOT easily seen in this image is another galaxy UGC7356 above M106 and a quasar, 1214+474, to the upper left. They show up as tiny dots, basically, when the image is very heavily processed. So why is that a big deal? (to me, anyway) Well, this is only a one minute image, taken with a small telescope in a moderately light polluted sky. If this were an image from a professional observatory, it would be nothing much at all.

M106 and friends identified, from Astrometry.net

A few nights before I imaged M106, I took a few images of the moon. The air was not terribly steady, but I did image Lacus Mortus, the Lake of Death. It appears to be a lava filled crater where the sides look to form and incomplete hexagon. Near the center of the Lake is the Crater Burg, which is about 24 miles in diameter. Maybe that will give a sense of scale to the image.

Lacus Mortus, just left and above ceenter

The last image is of 3 craters, (top to bottom) Theophilus, Cyrillus, and Catharina. These would be south of Lacus Mortus by a good distance. What struck me was the fist shape of the central mountain in Theophilus (not pun intended..... well, maybe :). To me, I see 3 fingers and a thumb. What about you?

Do you see a fist?(Large crater near top and just right of center)