This
Astrobin Debut Object is a spiral galaxy located 100 million light years away in the constellation of Ursa Major at a declination of +60 degrees. This magnitude 11.8 galaxy spans 4 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a Milky Way-sized diameter of 120,000 light years. The bright central portion is about one-third of that width.
I usually orient my images with north as up, but in this case I preferred to show the disk horizontal with the near side of the disk to the bottom. I have an easier time visually the disk this way. Dust is much more visible in the bottom, near side of the disk.
Our almost edge-on view of the disk provides a perfect glimpse of the classic
peanut core with surrounding X-shape. This effect is from the orbiting pattern of stars across the core of the galaxy. I would love to be able to see this galaxy face-on – it has interesting dust lanes and signs of a ring in the mid-section.
I also find it interesting that, while the bright mid-section of the galaxy is horizontal in this image, the faint outer limit of the galaxy is slightly rotated a few degrees clockwise.
This galaxy is easily reached by those of us in the northern hemisphere and I am surprised that it is so seldomly imaged.
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