M74, also known as the Phantom Galaxy, is a Type SA(s)c spiral 32 million light-years from Earth in constellation Pisces and its diameter is 95,00 light-years.  M74 has an apparent magnitude of 9.4 and can be viewed with low magnification. It is the brightest member of the M74 Group that contains 5 to 7 galaxies.  Pierre Méchain, an observer assistant to Charles Messier, discovered this galaxy in 1780.

M74 is a perfect example of a grand-design spiral galaxy. Symmetrical spiral arms reach out from the galaxy’s central nucleus and are traced by winding dust lanes. The arms are dotted with clusters of young, blue stars and pink regions where the ultraviolet light from these young stars has ionized clouds of hydrogen and caused them to glow.

The list below exhibits the number of subframes used with the exposure time for each filter. All the subframes were calibrated with Flats, Darks and Biases by PixInsight. Afterwards the subframes were combined and processed to the final image.

^* 2×2 binned

Total time for collecting data for this image is 15.5 hours.