M106

M106 and neighbours in Canes Venatici!

M106, the bigger galaxy in the image is a spiral galaxy at a distance of about 25 million light years away from Earth and is part of the Local Supercluster. NGC4217, on top right, is edge on spiral galaxy at 60 million light-years away from us! It's neighbor, NGC4226, is even farther away at 340 million light years!

Farthest in this image are galaxies NGC4231 and NGC4232 at about 400 million light years. When photons from these galaxies, captured by my camera, started their journey, Earth was in the Devonian period of Paleozoic Era, before the dinosaurs, before amphibians, when only fishes and insects populated our planet!

Just the sheer vastness of our universe!