The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy... M 83
(Click on Picture for larger view)

Added April 26, 2019 ...
The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, also known as Messier 83. This galaxy is located low in the southern sky at midnight in late April. This is only a 12 minute exposure, the only window of opportunity I have as it is briefly visible at my location between the trees at when highest in the sky. At best, this small galaxy of 40 billion stars is only 28 degree at maximum altitude when due south here in Savannah.

I took this with the Celestron 11" telescope at f/7 (via the 0.7X reducer lens). It is about 14.7 million light-years away. In comparison, our Milky Way Galaxy has about 250 billion stars and the northern Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) has about a trillion stars.

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