NGC 300. Spiral Galaxy in Sculptor

Orientation:
Image Scale: 1.02 arc sec/pixel
Exposure: Lum 25 x 300" Bin 1x1, RGB 12 x 300" Bin 2x2
Telescope: Takahashi TOA-150 @ f/7.3 (fl=1095mm)
Camera: SBIG STT-8300M CCD self-guided
Mount: Paramount MX on ATS Pier
Location: Deep Southern Skies Observatory, Federal, NSW on 17-23 Oct 2015
Notes: A member of the Sculptor Group of galaxies. In 1834, John Herschell discovered NGC 300 at the Cape of Good Hope with his 18 1/2-inch reflector, however, James Dunlop listed this object in A Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars in the Southern Hemisphere, Observed at Parramatta in New South Wales, published in 1827. NGC 300 displays a barless spiral with wide, loosely wound arms and a tiny nucleus. NGC 300 has two dominant S-shaped spiral arms laced with dark lanes and starry clumps and two other feathery arms forming a weaker S giving it a pinwheel pattern. Its true diameter is 22,000 light years with a total mass of 30 billion suns.