Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Antlia (Ant)  ·  Contains:  HD84431  ·  HD84752  ·  HD84753  ·  HD84823  ·  HD84824  ·  NGC 2997
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NGC 2997 framed with glowing hydrogen, Niall MacNeill
NGC 2997 framed with glowing hydrogen, Niall MacNeill

NGC 2997 framed with glowing hydrogen

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 2997 framed with glowing hydrogen, Niall MacNeill
NGC 2997 framed with glowing hydrogen, Niall MacNeill

NGC 2997 framed with glowing hydrogen

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Description

NGC 2997 is a face-on unbarred spiral galaxy about 40 million light-years away in the faint southern constellation of Antlia. It was discovered March 4, 1793, by German-born astronomer William Herschel. 
This is a grand-design galaxy, a two-armed form. The morphological classification of NGC 2997 is SAB(rs)c, indicating a weakly-barred spiral galaxy (SAB) with an incomplete ring around the bar (rs) and loosely-wound spiral arms (c). It is inclined at an angle of 40° to the line of sight from the Earth, with the major axis aligned along a position angle of 110°. The arms host a series of dusty knots that are star-forming regions being generated through gas compression from density waves. At the core, the arms converge to form a circumnuclear ring with symmetrically-placed hot spots containing super star clusters.” …. Wikipedia (abridged)...these hot spots can be seen in my image.

I noticed that there were substantial bands of hydrogen showing up in the Hydrogen Alpha image. It turns out that this whole region is awash with it and I think it frames the galaxy beautifully. I made quite a bit of effort to ensure this Ha signal came through.

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    NGC 2997 framed with glowing hydrogen, Niall MacNeill
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    NGC 2997 framed with glowing hydrogen, Niall MacNeill
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NGC 2997 framed with glowing hydrogen, Niall MacNeill