NGC 3344 is a relatively isolated barred spiral galaxy located 22.5 million light years away in the constellation Leo Minor. This galaxy belongs to the group known as the Leo spur, which is a branch of the Virgo Supercluster. NGC 3344 has the morphological classification of a weakly barred spiral galaxy that exhibits rings and moderate to loosely wound spiral arms. There is both an inner and outer ring, with the prominent arms radiating outward from the inner ring and the slightly elliptical bar being situated inside. At the center of the bar is an HII nucleus with an angular diameter of about 3″.[Source: Wikipedia]

NGC 3344 is a glorious spiral galaxy around half the size of the Milky Way. We are fortunate enough to see NGC 3344 face-on, allowing the study of its structure in detail.

The more yellowish colored faint fuzzies surrounding the galaxy are other galaxies, not stars.

The central regions of the galaxy are predominately populated by young stars, with the galactic fringes also featuring areas of active star formation.

The high density of stars in galaxies’ central regions gives them enough gravitational influence to affect the movement of other stars in their galaxy. However, NGC 3344’s outer stars are moving in an unusual manner, although the presence of the bar cannot entirely account for this. It is possible that previously NGC 3344 passed close by another galaxy and acquired stars from it. [Source: NASA/Hubble Space Telescope]

CAPTURE Information:

The image was captured with the iOptron CEM120 mount , the venerable Meade 12"LX200 SCT, and my Atik 383L+ mono CCD at F7.16 (2182mm FL). Image subs were taken through Astronomik's filters Lum, R, G and B.

All subs were done at 1x1 bin, -10C. Lum at 10 min. each, and Red Grn and Blu at 5 min. each.

IMAGE information -- 2021

Lum (600s): 34 subs (5.67hr) on Mar 31st and Apr 5th.

Red (300s): 20 subs (1.67hr) on Mar 31st ,Apr 1st and 5th.

Green(300s): 20 subs (1.67hr) on Apr 1st and 5th.

Blue (300s): 20 subs (1.67hr) on Apr 1st.

Processing was done with PixInsight, following (for the most part) kayronjm's tutorial of Feb. 24th from several years back. Only Lum was used to develop the Luminance image.

R, G and B were collected for the color mix.

North is up (pretty sure, or not), and this is a slight crop due to the various movement of different subs.

COMMENTS:

First time to capture this one, and I feel it came out pretty good. However, its season is not done so I may add more data, including Ha to emphasize the star creation in the arms.