NGC2683

Discovered in 1788 by William Herschel, the field galaxy NGC2683 is about 30m light years distant in Lynx. It is inclined at 78 degrees to Earth and has a classic “flying saucer” appearance and so, not surprisingly, it is also known as the UFO galaxy. It has low luminosity with a low rate of star formation. Dust lanes are clearly visible around the spiral arms.  A large population of old yellow stars form a relatively bright core, whilst much younger blue stars can be seen in the star forming region at the top right. Various background galaxies are also visible.  This LRGB image was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents just over 13 hours integration time.