M-88 (NGC-4501) is a bright Type SBc Spiral Galaxy located in the constellation of Coma Berenices. It lies approximately 50 million light years from Earth, and is 130,000 light years in diameter. Its nucleus contains a supermassive black hole. M-88 was discovered by Charles Messier in March of 1781 and added to his catalog as number 88. It is a member of the Virgo cluster of galaxies.
This image, acquired on April 23, 2012, is a 20 minute integration of 80 second exposures through the Celestron C-11 at f/2, using the HyperStar III imaging system and the Starlight Express SXVR-H-694C 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.