The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, Messier 83, is a wonderful, face on, barred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Hydra. It is approximately 15 million light-years away, making it one of the closest barred spiral galaxies in the sky. It has a diameter of ca. 118000 light years with an apparent magnitude of 7.6. Regions of Hydrogen-alpha emission wee enhnced by the use of a H-alpha narrowband filter. The blue/white bright regions of the spiral arms are caused by hot new stars. Many other galaxies are visible in the image. The image was finished using data from a remote hosting facility in Chile.
Planwave CDK24
PW L600
Moravian C3-61000 Pro
L, R,G,B and H-alpha filters
ca. 16 hrs, Gain 0/2750, F6.5, 3962mm