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M106 aka. NGC 4258
Magnitude: 8.4
Distance: Aprox: 23.7 million light-years
Constellation: Canes Venatici
Diameter: 135,000 light-years

Messier 106 is classified as a SABbc type galaxy, which means that it is an intermediate between a normal and barred spiral galaxy. It is home to at least 400 billion stars.

Messier 106 is also classified as a Seyfert II galaxy. It has a considerably larger extent in radio than in visible light and exhibits emission line spectra from the nucleus. M106 shows unusual emission lines and X-rays, indicating that a portion of the galaxy is falling into a central supermassive black hole.

Messier 106 lies along a line drawn from Phecda (Phad), Gamma Ursae Majoris, the star marking the bottom of the Big Dipper toward the handle, to Cor Caroli, Alpha Canum Venaticorum, the brightest star in Canes Venatici constellation.

Taken 3/17/10 in Pioneer Ohio by Russell Kille on a CPC 1100 with Hyperstar @ F2 and ZWO ASI294MC Pro camera