M100 (NGC 4321)

M100 (NGC 4321)

Type	Location	r.a.	dec.	Size	Magnitude	Distance
Galaxy	Coma B	12h22.9	15°49'	6.9' x 6.2'	9.4	55 Mly

Messier 100 (also known as NGC 4321) is an example of a grand design spiral galaxy located within the southern part of constellation Coma Berenices. It is one of the brightest and largest galaxies in the Virgo cluster, approximately 55 million light-years distant from Earth and has a diameter of 160,000 light years.

Several other galaxies are also visible, see finder chart below. NGC 4322 and NGC 4328 are connected to M100.

2006 Color image

M100 - NGC 4321

Galaxy detail

M100 - NGC 4321, detail

2002 B&W images (with asteroid)

Full image (FOV = 35' x 23')

M100 finder chart

M100 detail

More from Wikipedia

Date	Telescope	Binning	Exp Time (s)	Special processing	Notes
April 8, 2002	Centurion 18"	L 1:1	L 3x300	Max Entropy, (+DDP for galaxy detail)	Asteroid detection: see below
April 9, 2006	"	"	L 3x300 R, G, B 300	Max entropy, LRGB, DDP

The asteroid was detected by blinking between the 3 images. Here is an enlarged portion of the asteroid trace, just below IC 783:

asteroid trace

The asteroid was easily identified on the Lowell Observatory web server which provided the following plot:

asteroid plot