Detail of the Sombrero galaxy

This is the eastern area of the Sombrero Galaxy, with the pronounced dust bands and many background galaxies. North is up and East is left.

Technical information : This composite image is based on three exposures from the FORS1 instrument at VLT ANTU. They were obtained at about 6:20 hrs UT on January 30, 2000, through V-band (central wavelength 554 nm; 112 nm Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM); exposure time 120 sec; here rendered as blue), R-band (657 nm; 150 nm FWHM; 120 sec; green) and I-band (768 nm; 138 nm FWHM, 240 sec; red). The seeing was 0.6 - 0.7 arcsec. Image processing by Mark Neeser (Kapteyn Institute, Groningen) and Richard Hook (ST/ECF, Garching, Germany).