M94 is a complex galaxy in Canes Venatici. It has both inner and outer rings surrounding an unusually bright and active core. The blue areas in the innermost ring are areas of intense star formation. In this image, the outer ring shows hints of the very faint spiral structure seen in recent professional images. The image was taken with a 12.5" PlaneWave CDK telescope and a Quantum Scientific QSI640-ws camera at f/5.2. Total integration time was about 11 hours using LRGB filters, taken from a dark sky site near Anza, CA on 5/25-5/26 and 6/23/2014.
-- Bruce Waddington