NGC 6744 - and what it might look like face on (Niall MacNeill)

NGC 6744 - and what it might look like face on

An old favourite. NGC 6744 is a magnificent grand design spiral galaxy, 31 million light years distant, with a small bar, in the constellation of Pavo. It is considered to be virtually identical in form to the Milky Way, although larger at 180 thousand light years in diameter versus 105 thousand light years for our own galaxy.
The second image (Version B) is annotated and shows quite a number of other galaxies, in the background. However, one NGC 6744A (PGC 61825) is a companion galaxy, like the Magellanic Clouds. In this 2D view it looks like it could be attached to the spiral arm, but I believe this is a trompe d'oeil and it is actually sitting out of the plane of the galaxy, closer to us and its position with respect to the spiral arm is a line of sight coincidence. The galaxy has somewhat flocculent spiral arms, as they are termed, and clearly there are quite straight sections, which are known as Vorontsov-Velyaminov rows. It has a resemblance to the Northern Hemisphere galaxy M101 in this regard.
For fun I used the skew function in Photoshop to return the elliptical shape due to the galaxy being tilted towards us, to a circular shape (Version C, which can be accessed via the mouse-over). This would be a very good approximation to what the galaxy would look like face on and I have effectively deconvolved the image to produce this view. The calculated tilt angle is 50 degrees. Yes, it is closer to edge on than face on, but quite close to being half way between edge-on and face on!
Finally I include for posterity a comparison between my images from 2017, 2020 and 2023.

Final
Original
B
C
D

B

Description: Annotated image

Uploaded: ...

C

Description: Image skewed/ deconvolved to approximate its apperance face on

Uploaded: ...

D

Description: Comparison 2017-05-30 vs 2020-09-23 vs 2023-05-16

Uploaded: ...

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8243333
PixInsight job	LZUY8BY9S5H4FUZEM2GC2NVW04VYLMGI
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	19h09m47s.270
RA (top/left)	19h06m36s.616
RA (top/right)	19h12m54s.787
RA (bottom/right)	19h12m52s.752
RA (bottom/left)	19h06m43s.753

Dec (center)	-63°51′33″.50
Dec (top/left)	-64°11′51″.34
Dec (top/right)	-64°12′07″.29
Dec (bottom/right)	-63°30′58″.29
Dec (bottom/left)	-63°30′42″.85

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