“Whirling Lights”: M83 – The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy

[deepskyjourney]

This stunning barred spiral galaxy, also known as M83, lies 15 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra. It’s one of the closest and brightest barred spiral galaxies in our sky, known for its vibrant star formation and chaotic supernova remnants scattered throughout its arms.

Bringing this galaxy to life with my Celestron from the 1990s felt like connecting the old and new. This telescope, paired with modern technology, still manages to reveal the breathtaking beauty of the cosmos. There’s something magical about capturing these distant wonders with gear that has seen so many skies over the decades.

Telescope: Celestron Ultima 9-1/4
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
Mount: Sky-Watcher NEQ6-Pro

Frames:

Antlia 3nm Narrowband H-alpha 36 mm: 36×300″(3h)
Baader Blue (CMOS-Optimized) 36 mm: 75×180″(3h 45′)
Baader Green (CMOS-Optimized) 36 mm: 75×180″(3h 45′)
Baader Red (CMOS-Optimized) 36 mm: 75×180″(3h 45′)
Baader UV/IR CUT Luminance (CMOS Optimized) 36 mm: 140×180″(7h)

Integration Time: 21h 15′

Check out the HQ version on Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/hso9ya/B/

All my socials: linktr.ee/deepskyjourney

https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=324969&stc=1&d=1741166290

[alpal]

Hi Rod,
that's a top notch image.
That old Celestron is really cooking.
Who needs a new telescope?
It was a lot of work though - 21 hours and 15 minutes of data! -
not counting the 70% of data you discarded.
Perfect processing.
Well done.

cheers
Allan

[Ryderscope]

A beautiful rendition of M83 Rod and definitely worthy of the Top Pick on Astrobin.

[AdamJL]

That's about as good as it gets.

[AdamJL]

21 hours on a massive scope as well. I did 24 hours on this one but only from an Esprit 120 and can't get close to this sort of image.
Proof that aperture matters!

[Startrek]

Rod,
Where have you been hiding ?
This image of M83 and your others on this forum are 1st class , worthy of an APOD, not to mention the time , dedication, skill and effort to capture and process the image but also the detailed presentation of your work , again 1st class. The weather gods must be kind to you up in Brisbane to consistently gather so much data on one project.
Looking forward to seeing more of your work in the future.


Welcome
Martin

[deepskyjourney]

Thanks for your kind replies everyone, I really appreciate it.
Martin, you're too nice! I do hope I get an APOD one day, it's in the bucket list :)