In another triumph for citizen science, physician and astrophotographer Robert Gendler has created the most glorious image we've ever seen of the spiral galaxy M106. He did it by combining his own ground-based photography of the galaxy with images taken by the Hubble space telescope. Click to enlarge.


This is a great reminder that citizen science, done by educated amateurs, is incredibly important when it comes to observation and data collection. This photograph also makes it clear how much of the astrophotography we see is the result of mosaics which combine many images of the same object to give us a clear view.

According to HubbleSite: