- Buckner Mountain, also commonly known as Mount Buckner, is a high-elevation peak located in the North Cascades of Washington. Standing at ~9112’ elevation, Buckner Mountain is the highest point of Skagit County and the sixth-highest county highpoint (CoHP) in Washington. The peak is considered an “Apex” county highpoint, one of the 20 most technically-demanding CoHPs to summit in the United States outside of Alaska. In fact, Buckner Mountain is considered the 17th-most technically-demanding CoHP in the lower 48 States and the 5th-most technically-demanding CoHP in Washington, behind Bonanza Peak in Washington’s Chelan County but ahead of Big Horn in Washington’s Lewis County.
- Messier 106 (Wikipedia)
Messier 106 (also known as NGC 4258) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. M106 contains an active nucleus classified as a Type 2 Seyfert, and the presence of a central supermassive black hole has been demonstrated from radio-wavelength observations of the rotation of a disk of molecular gas orbiting within the inner light-year around the black hole. NGC 4217 is a possible companion galaxy of Messier 106. Besides the two visible arms, it has two “anomalous arms” detectable using an X-ray telescope.