This object is a spiral galaxy located 40 million light-years away in the constellation of Antlia (the Air Pump) at a declination of -31 degrees. It is a magnitude 9.5 galaxy which spans 9 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a Milky Way like diameter of 110,000 light years.
The galaxy appears to be face-on but it is really at an angle of about 45 degrees to us. The galaxy has graceful spiraling arms, many blue star clusters, pinkish star formation regions, and clearly defined dark lanes spiraling into the core. The arm to the right of the core has an interesting wavy shape and hints of VV rows. The core appears brighter and more yellow than normal, and is believed to host a supermassive black hole.
The most interesting aspect of this galaxy is the tiny bright nuclear ring around the core. My collection of nuclear ring galaxies is
here.
The low southern declination of this galaxy combined with its moderate surface brightness made it a tough capture for me, which is why the integration time here is twice my normal galaxy time. My friend Niall (
@Niall MacNeill) recently captured an excellent image of this galaxy from his Australian backyard, seen
here at an orientation 180 degrees from mine. He did a wonderful job to capture the Ha in this region, which I did not make an effort to capture.
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