This
Astrobin Debut Object is a barred grand design spiral galaxy located 180 million light years away in the constellation of Cetus at a declination of -2 degrees. It is a magnitude 13 galaxy which spans 2 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a Milky Way like diameter of 120,000 light years.
From our view perspective, the disk is inclined almost halfway between face-on and edge-on.
The glare of the bright magnitude 8.7 star (HD 4873) just left and below of the galaxy has some effect on our view of the disk.
Notice the length of the bar, about half of the overall galaxy width. This feature is actually a
barlense, with a distinctive small bright lens around the core.
Each of the 2 long arms extends out counterclockwise around the core. For the first 180 degrees of revolution, each arm is thin and dense, but for the last 180 degrees each arm becomes diffuse. I like the short stubby arms which extend clockwise from each end of the bar.
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