Image Centered on Ra.9 : 32.2 (h:m) Dec. +21 : 30 (deg:m) 21 Million Ly
NGC 2903
Spiral Galaxy NGC 2903 (= H I.56), type Sb+, in Leo
Information (from the SEDS website)
Discovered by William Herschel in 1784.
NGC 2903 is another beautiful and more conspicuous Northern objects which
Charles Messier missed when compiling his catalog - and that only narrowly: G.M.
Caglieris has pointed out that three of his comets came quite close to this
object: The second comet of 1760 passed it during the night of March 11-12, 1760
at only 1deg 40', and also the comets of 1762 and 1771 came into its vicinity.
Thus its discovery was left to William Herschel who cataloged it as H I.56 on
November 16, 1784.
NGC 2905 is a bright knot (star cloud) in NGC 2903, contrary to the NGC 2000.0
description. It was first assigned an extra number by William Herschel (H I.57).
NGC 2903 is listed by Brent Tully at a distance of 20.5 million light years. It
is a beautiful spiral, seen from an oblique angle
Optics and Exposure Data
Telescope, Vixen R200ss 8 inch Newtonian at F4 (Fl 800mm) with a Televue Coma Corrector and aftermarket Moonlite accessories focuser.
Mount, Losmandy G11 with Gemini control electronics
Imager, Starlite-Xpress SXV-h9
Exposure data, Luminance = 60 minutes, RGB 20 minutes each channel.
Images acquired with Astroart and aligned then combined in Maxim Dl. Final RGB composite processed with Photoshop Cs
Images acquired from my backyard - " Dirt Clod Observatory" in Antelope California
