NGC 3344 (a.k.a. Sliced Onion Galaxy) is a barred spiral galaxy located 22.5 million light years away in the constellation Leo Minor. Although it appears to be a relatively isolated galaxy, it is on the Leo branch of the Virgo Supercluster. The image shows the yellowish core which is made up of older stars. Younger blue stars and reddish nebula regions make up the arms but that is beyond my resolving power of my equipment (source: wikipedia, APOD).
To me it does not look like a sliced onion but I am not the person who comes up with names. Like my images of NGC 2903 and Hickson-44, this object is a stretch with my set up. I imaged this over two nights, the first night being much better. In fact I was not going to use the second nights data at all but after processing it it did result in a better image. Also, I logged in more time with Astrophotography Tools (APT) for capturing the image the second night.
https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/
Comments