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Cartwheel galaxy.
I finally managed to get a decent view of the Cartwheel galaxy last night (ESO350-40 in Sculptor). My previous attempt two years ago I recorded as a positive, but only two smudges, wheras last night the ring was visible with averted vision.
The edge of the ring was visible, with the galaxy itself an off-centred smudge. Tracing the ring around there were small bright clumps occasionally apparent and hints of radial structure.
This is the first time I've seen a polar ring - an interesting galactic morphology caused by a collision.
I'm curious if others have viewed this object; Hartung's has observations from much smaller apertures than I was using, and it was by no means an easy target.
Scope was a 25" f5 at 254 power.
Thanks for reading!
Andrew.
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