NGC2903 is a 9.7mag bright and 12′.6 × 6′.0 sized barred-spiral-galaxy (type SB(s)d) in the constellation of Leo.Even in small telescopes it´s easy to detect but is suprisingly not noticed in Messier´s catalog.
It´s distance of about 30 Mio.light-years allows us to detect a lot of detail in the central part of NGC2903,where intensive star creation takes place.The fine blue surrounding arms content many young,blue star clusters and also red star forming regions.
It was first seen by William Herschel in 1784.
position (epoch2000):
RA.: 09h 32m 10.1s
Decl.: +21° 30′ 03″
image data:
LRGB image with L = 26x1200s, RGB = 8x1200s each,a total of 16.6 hours
80cm f/7 AstroOptik Keller corrected cassegrain FLI Proline 16803 Astrodon LRGB GenII filters
Prompt 7 CTIO/UNC Chile,remote controlled
image processing: Bernd Flach-Wilken
94% of the FOV of our FLI-CCD-camera is visible in the picture below. For full resolution click here
a more detailed look to the centre of NGC2903 can be seen here:
click here to find out,how the HST sees the centre of this galaxy