NGC253 

Photograph information

Telescope : LX200 12 at f 10

Film : Fuji superia 400

Exposure : 55 min Manual guided 

Date : 2/8/2000

Location : Greece Island Crete

Object Information:

NGC 253 is a Spiral Galaxy also referred to as the Sculptor Galaxy it is located in the southern constellation Sculptor and it is found five degrees NNW of alpha Scupltoris. Its distance estimated about 10 million light years away . It is one of the easier galaxies to observe as it is the brightest spiral of the Sculptor Group. The Sculptor group is perhaps the nearest to our Local Group of galaxies. It appears elongated because we see it almost edge-on. This galaxy is also one of the dustiest galaxies known and much of its internal detail is hidden by obscuring matter which can be seen as dark patches against the background stars. Despite the obscuration, two spiral arms and many bluish clusters of stars can be seen around the edge of the galaxy. NGC 253 is so close to us that some of the brightest stars are apparent as individuals within the spiral arms.

Recently Hubble's high resolution images allows astronomers to quantify complex structures in the starburst core of the galaxy , including luminous star clusters, dust lanes which trace regions of dense gas and filaments of glowing gas.  Hubble identifies several regions of intense star formation, which include bright, super-compact star cluster.

 You can observe the NGC253 galaxy by binoculars or by low powers eyepieces.

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