M-109 (NGC-3992) is a beautiful barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation of Ursa Major. It is easily located, as it is only 1 degree SW of Phecda (Gamma Ursae Majoris) the star that forms the SW corner of the bowl of the "dipper". M-109 lies over 85 million light years from Earth, making it the most distant of all the Messier galaxies. It is a large galaxy, being over 160,000 light years in diameter. It was not included in Charles Messier's original catalog, but after years of research, it was added, as number 109, after it was discovered that Messier had observed it on the same night as M-98 and M-99, but had failed to log its position.
This image, acquired on June 19, 2017, is a 1 hour integration of 6 minute exposures through the Celestron C-11 at f/2, using the HyperStar III imaging system and the Starlight Express SXVR-H694C color CCD camera, operating at -10 degrees below ambient temperature and binned 1 X 1. Guided, captured and combined using Maxim DL5 Pro. Post processed using PhotoShop CS2, Gradient XTerminator, StarShrink,
Carboni's Astro Tools and NoiseWare.