M104 is a distinctive galaxy in that the combination of its large central bulge, and prominent dust lane give it the appearance of a sombrero. M104 is known to have a large central supermassive black hole (as may be common in many galaxies). It is also renowned for having a large number of globular clusters - probably around 1200.

In this image, North is Up. This image is cropped to 77% of the original full frame.

Exposure Details
Lens	Celestron C-8 SCT with Lumicon telecompressor
Focal Length	1100mm
Focal Ratio	f/5.5
Mount	Schaefer GEM - 7 1/2
Guiding	Unguided
Camera	Canon 20Da
Exposure	147 subexposures of 45 seconds each at ISO 1600 - total a little over 1 3/4 hours
Calibration	30 darks, 30 flats, 30 bias
Date	May 6, 2011
Temperature	51F
SQM Reading
Seeing	4 of 5
Location	Pine Mountain Club, California
Software Used	Images Plus 4.0 for camera control, calibration, stacking and digital development. Photoshop CS5 used for color correction, star shrinking, saturation adjustments,unsharp mask, and high pass filter. Noise Ninja for noise reduction.
Notes	Unfortunately, my focus on this one is a bit soft, so the image doesn't stand up well to close scrutiny. Oh well...