Messier 61 (AKA NGC 4303) is an intermediate barred spiral galaxy in Virgo. It’s also one of the largest galaxies in the Virgo cluster. Even at 52 million light years away, it shows great detail. M61 is also a starburst galaxy – a galaxy undergoing a very rapid burst of star formation, like Messier 82. This may account for the very high amount of signal seen in the Hydrogen alpha filter. There was so much H-alpha that I had to tone it down quite a bit to keep it from overwhelming the red channel.

Being in Virgo there are several other galaxies visible. Below and to the left of M61 is NGC 4301. It’s about 58 million light years away. Below and to the right is NGC 4292 is 104 million light years away. Given its apparent size in the frame, it must be a huge galaxy! Finally, toward the bottom on the right is PGC 33951 (AKA UGC 7411) which is 103 million light years away. There are a lot of even smaller galaxies in the frame as well. The odds are good that they are at least 100 million light years away.

This is 26h 45m of HaLRGB data. For all the technical details, see astrobin.