M 83, the Southern Pinwheel galaxy

M 83 is a barred spiral galaxy. At a distance of "just" 15 million light-years, it is one of the closest objects of its kind to our Milky Way, and is visible even with simple binoculars. Unfortunately, its declination of nearly -30° makes it difficult to observe for sky-watchers in the northern hemisphere.

This image was remotely taken from Chile on April 14, 2023. The total exposure was one hour in LRGB with a Planewave CDK24 60cm f/6.5 telescope and a QHY 600M camera.

Credits: Simone Bolzoni | El Sauce Observatory (Chile) | Telescope Live