Something Elegant from the Universe for you all on Valentine’s Day!
NGC 1300 is a barred spiral galaxy located about 61 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus.
The galaxy is about 110,000 light-years across. It is a member of the Eridanus Cluster, a cluster of 200 galaxies.
NGC1300 has two notable features, one it has a very Red/Orange central bar, mostly made up of old Red Giant stars,
and the galaxy has two distinct thin but elegant spiral arms. It shines at 11.4 mag. and was discovered by John Herschel in 1835.
The bright round 11.8 mag. elliptical galaxy near the top is NGC1297, there are about a dozen or so small background galaxies visible as well.
It sits rather low in the Southern sky for me, I usually don’t get a chance to image that far south , due to trees & atmospheric muck on the horizon. But with my new taller telescope pier in place I had a about a two hour window just above the top of trees to nab it now.
I captured this image in a two hour exposure. (24 x 300sec subs). Captured with my Explore Scientific 102mm F7, Triplet APO Refractor, Bisque ME mount, QHY183C cooled Cmos Color Camera, bin 1×1, on 01-09-2021.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
