The Topsy-Turvy Galaxy

[Russ.Carpenter]

Here is the delightfully weird NGC1313, the Topsy-Turvy galaxy. It was the subject of two APODs (March 30, 2010 and August 7, 2009). Anomalies abound: 1) normally, scrambled galaxies are victims of collisions with neighboring galaxies, but NGC1313 is all alone; 2) NGC1313 is so stuffed with star formation that it has been labelled a starburst galaxy; 3) the spiral arms are lopsided; 4) the rotational axis is not at the center of the nuclear bar. The imaged was captured by a 27 inch Planewave at iTelescope in Siding Springs, Australia. 1.2 hours of imaging time, divided equally among R, G and B, binned 1X1. Subs graded in Nebulosity, aligned and stacked in PixInsight, with the rest in StarTools, except for a few twiddles in Affinity Photo.

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