Over the new moon we photographed NGC 4945 in Centaurus. The unusually warm colour is because we are seeing this dusty galaxy through the dust of our own milky way, and the blues are being partially dispersed. Despite this, there are still some strongly blue regions in the spiral arms where presumanbly hot young stars are forming. The delicate dust lanes are worth exploring out into the halo.
The very bright star in the image is Xi 1 Centauri, of spectral type A0, and therefore very hot and very blue despite the milky way dust. Xi 2 Centauri (or vice versa) is just out of field to the bottom left.
In the
original image you can see detail in a very faint face-on spiral at about 2 o'clock from the main galaxy.
There is also another distant magellanic, irregular galaxy hidden behind a bright star at about 8 o'clock.
Lum: 9hrs, RGB 2.5 hrs each. Aspen CG16M on 20" PlaneWave. Processing GoodLook 64.
Hope you find it interesting.
Mike and Trish