SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Jon Greif
Location of Photo:
Siding Spring Observatory (SSO), Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia, remotely from La Jolla, CA USA
Date/Time of photo:
August 21, 2022, at 4 AM in NSW (ADST)
Equipment:
12.5" - 320mm Ritchey-Chrétien Reflector by Star Instruments, Focal Length: 2885mm, F/Ratio: f/9, Guiding: External Guiding Mount: Paramount ME, CCD: Apogee Alta U16 with Astrodon L,R,G and B filters.
Description:
I got 30 minutes of telescope time this morning (at what was 4 AM local time) on the 12.5 inch Ritchey-Chrétien reflecting telescope (T33) at the Siding Springs Observatory in NSW Australia -- just enough time to remotely get 5 minute exposures each through Red, Green, Blue and Clear filters of NGC 1365, a barred spiral galaxy in the Southern Hemisphere Fornax cluster, 56 million light-years from Earth. Astronomers think NGC 1365's prominent central bar plays a crucial role in the galaxy's evolution, drawing gas and dust into a star-forming maelstrom and ultimately feeding material into a central black hole. Two spiral arms extend in a wide curve from the ends of the central bar. NGC 1365, including its two outer spiral arms, spreads over 200,000 light-years. Different parts of the galaxy take different times to make a full rotation around the core of the galaxy, with the outer parts of the bar completing one circuit in about 350 million years. NGC 1365 and other galaxies of its type have come to more prominence in recent years with new observations indicating that the Milky Way could also be a barred spiral galaxy. Such galaxies are quite common — two thirds of spiral galaxies are barred according to recent estimates, and studying others can help astronomers understand our own galactic home.
