NGC 3180 / 3184 is a nice little face on spiral galaxy in Ursa Major. I think it is quite cute as galaxies go. Due to an error in the NGC catalogue, it appears as both 3180 and 3184, although I have also read that 3180 and 3181 are Ha regions within 3184. The galaxy is about 40 million light years away.
I did not get great data on this one - it gave me a lot of frustration! My CEM25 was struggling with horrific backlash in the DEC axis which I tried adjusting out several times in the dark.
This caused me to throw out about 50% of all the frames because of star trailing. The ones I kept still had some guiding issues. I had to apply more noise reduction in PS than I would normally as a result.
I am sure the galaxy would yield better detail if I had more data and a better mount for 1260mm of focal length. Anyone who follows me may remember that I let this mount blow over a few months ago. I sent it back to iOptron, but it has never been the same. It may have to carry short focal lengths only from here on.
The galaxy to its right, NGC 3179 at magnitude 13.7 is roughly 326 million light years away. According to Wikipedia, this would make it 70% larger than our milky way!
CS
Bob
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