| Description | This is a very bright and reasonably large galaxy, where the "handle", a faint, vertical dust lane, became evident after about 30m of integration. Clouds shut down observing after 55m. Affinity Photo processing of the .png image saved "as adjusted" in Sharpcap makes it more apparent at the cost of a much noisier background. As part of my pre-submission review, I processed the monochrome, inverted version which makes the "handle" even more evident. In most other respects this spiral galaxy appears normal. It is slightly elongated vertically, and the outer arm of the spiral is slightly detached from the rest of the disc, both consistent with a gravitational attraction from the top of the image. There do seem to be some tiny galaxies in the region where the handle terminates, evident in both the color and inverted images. However, I wouldn't want to speculate whether they are attracting the "narrow filament" or some other process is responsible. |
