NGC 5033 is an impressive large spiral galaxy in the "loyal" constellation Canes Venatici [‡], but seems to be relatively under-appreciated as an astrophotography target, with fewer than 300 Astrobin postings to date. I've use the word "gnarly" to describe it in two senses of the word: the galaxy is an excellent target, and its spiral arms are unusually knotty, twisted and warped! 🤓 An especially notable feature is the arm on the left side that appears to curve up from the galactic disk at a steep pitch angle (the image orientation is such that east is up and north is to the right).

NGC 5033 is one of the nearest large Seyfert galaxies, at a distance of about 55 million light years, with an angular diameter of more than 10', and a physical diameter of about 180,000 light years. Seyfert galaxies are closely related to quasars, with very luminous "active" galactic nuclei (AGN) that are now understood to be powered by the accretion of matter into their super-massive blackholes. This galaxy has been repeatedly studied by professional astronomers over many decades, since it has a number of attributes that make it a useful case study of AGN: one of the closest Seyferts, a large apparent size and an interesting morphology, a spectrum that varies over time, and an active nucleus that appears to be shifted in position relative to the rotational centre of the galaxy. The off-centring of the active nucleus may be due to a recent merger, and could be causing material to flow into the nucleus, driving its observed activity. NGC 5033 forms a physical pair with another large galaxy, NGC 5005, which is also a Seyfert. 

This image is the result of just under 20 hours of integration, divided roughly equally between luminance and RGB, taken over the course of eight nights in the first half of May, and spans about 25' to a side, at a plate scale of 0.47"/pixel.

[‡] Speaking of "loyal" Canes Venatici, this picture of my daughter-in-law Rhiannon, my son Alexandre, and our family pooch Cali, seems strangely relevant. 😎