M83 The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (NGC 5236)
Click the image below to see a bigger version
A spectacular face-on spiral galaxy the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (M83) is
situated a mere 15 million light years away. It contains intricate reddish veins in
its spiral arms. These areas are nebulosity, which are known to be star-forming
regions. The bright core has a slight yellow tinge from older yellow suns and the
blue areas are where millions of massive hot young stars are burning.
In the image above you can see two small (i.e. very distant) galaxies
situated at about 5 o'clock in the dark sky close to the edge of the pinwheel.
This image is a stack of 38 x 2 minute ISO 1600 exposures taken with a
H-alpha modified Canon 350D at prime-focus of an LXD-75 SN-8. The galaxy has
apparent dimensions of approximately 11 x 10 arcseconds. Its visual magnitude is 7.6
so you're not going to see it without binoculars at a dark site. Its surface
brightness is about mag 13 but it shows up quite well in a 30 second ISO 1600 exposure.
This is one of the brighter galaxies, and I think it is maybe the most
pleasing galactic target for astrophotography in the southern hemisphere. Most of
the big bright face-on spirals are northern hemisphere objects. Most of the
southern galaxies are visually small or very irregularly shaped.
I am very pleased with how this image came out.
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