Galaxy NGC 1365
This is another of my favourite galaxies, NGC 1365, a spiral-barred galaxy and black hole
candidate. Our almost face-on line of sight to this galaxy gives us a perfect view of
this spiral
galaxy with its distinct bar crossing the galactic core and connecting each of
this galaxy's massive spiral arms. NGC 1365 is around 200,000 light years across
at its widest span and we see this galaxy from 60-Million light years away appearing in the southern
constellation of Fornax. NGC 1365 is easily observed in amateur telescopes and
appears 11.2' x 6.9' arc-minutes in size and glows at
Magnitude 9.9b. This image is approximately 25' arc-minutes wide.
The following image is a 3x enlargement of the core region of NGC 1365. The nucleus of this galaxy is pin-pointed by the bright yellow-orange object at centre image, bright blue-white regions, north and south of the nucleus, are regions where star formation is taking place at a furious rate. Lanes of dark matter which fan out along the galactic bar can be traced extending from the galaxy nucleus. Other star forming regions highlight each of the two spiral arms though these regions are producing stars at a much more casual rate than the regions near the galaxy's nucleus.
Image Exposure Details
| Telescope | 304mm f/5 reflector telescope. |
| Camera |
Canon EOS 300D Digital Rebel. |
| Exposures | 3 x 90 sec. @ ISO 1600. 3 x 7 min. @ ISO 200. 2 x 7 min. @ ISO 400. |
| Total Exposure time | approx. 37-minutes. |
| Sky Conditions | Clear but bright sky. Seeing: 8/10 Wind: 0.3/10 Moisture: 1/10. |
| Guider | hand guided. |
| Ambient Temperature | 18° C. |
| Notes | Used Baader Coma Corrector, warm
night, camera noise increasing with warmer nights. |
(C) Copyright 2005 Paul Mayo.
paulm@skylab.com.au