M 83 Southern Pinwheel Galaxy
| Description | Messier 83, also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, is a barred spiral galaxy located approximately 15 million light-years away in the boundary region of the constellations Hydra and Centaurus. It was discovered by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille on February 17, 1752, at the Cape of Good Hope. Charles Messier later included it in his catalogue of nebulous objects, now known as the Messier Catalogue, in March 1781. M83 is one of the closest and brightest barred spiral galaxies visible from Earth and can be spotted with binoculars. It has an isophotal diameter of about 36.24 kiloparsecs (approximately 118,000 light-years). Its nickname, the Southern Pinwheel, comes from its resemblance to the Pinwheel Galaxy. |
|---|---|
| Data/Processing Attribution | Data was purchased from Telescope Live and I did processing only. |
| Distances/Size | Distance to the object- 14.7 million light years; angular size in the sky is about 13’ X 12’ (minutes); size of the galaxy is about 118,000 light years in diameter |
| Equipment | Mount-Software Bisque Paramount MX+ GEM; Scope- Takahashi, 106 mm aperture, 382mm focal length; Camera- QHY600 M Pro. |
| Observatory | Telescope Live, IC Astronomical Observatory, Spain. |
| Exposure | LRGB filters, total exposure- 11 hours 20 min. |