M94 LRGB Croc's Eye Galaxy

Image Title: M94 LRGB Croc's Eye Galaxy

Copyright: Mohammed Alani

Location: Sawda Alnatheel desert, Qatar

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

If other selected: I would like to share with you my astrophoto of Crocodile Eye Galaxy M94 for APOD consideration. My name is Mohammed Dawoud living in Doha, Qatar. My Instagram is: Astrogeek10. The image was taken on 01/05/2025 from Sawda alnatheel , Qatar sky class bortle 4.

Image Description and Details: Croc’s Eye Galaxy M94 is a very strange galaxy located in constellation of Canes Venatici. This galaxy lies about 15 Million Light years. It consists of inner and outer rings. The inner ring has short galactic arms that appears blue in the image which represent the active regions of the galaxy that form stars and contain the stars nurseries that appear as Red spots in the image. While, the outer arms can be seen as red shifted yellow arms. All the inner & outer arms are condensed in the inner ring. Surprisingly, the outer ring very faint and needs long exposure time. The astronomy scientists suggest that, this ring is formed due to gravitational interaction with nearby stellar system. While, recently they assume that, this weird outer ring is formed due to bar shaped galactic core.
L 103 x 300 sec, R 36 x 300sec, G 36 x 300sec, B 30 x 300sec. Total exposure 17 hours. Captured by NINA, PHD2. Stacked in APP, Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop.

Equipment Details: Gear setup: Celestron HD8 f/10 + Celestron HD11 f/7, ZWO 2600MM cooled @-10, iOptron GEM45 + iOptron CEM40G, ZWO OAG-L + ZWO 174MM, Celestron OAG, Antlia LRGB Pro V Filters 2" , Meade LRGB Filter 2".

Name: Mohammed Alani

Website or Facebook Profile: http://www.instagram.com/astrogeek10/