Here's a beautiful barred spiral galaxy, not too far away, between 30 and 60 million light-years. I thought a close-up with a C11 telescope would be interesting. This galaxy is part of the NGC 4274 group.

The processing was quite an adventure, to say the least. I tried all sorts of things: Syqon's starless filter wasn't giving good results, I tweaked GHS more than necessary, and so on. Then, finally, I started from scratch: good old logarithmic stretching, Starnet, and above all, the magic tool: HDR processing. I was indeed able to bring out the spiral in the center, along the bulge, which adds an interesting touch to this image.

Wiki: "One of the striking features of this galaxy is the ring surrounding its bulge, in which intense star formation takes place. This ring was discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope, and the age of its stars does not exceed five million years. The origin of this ring is thought to be a type of gravitational resonance. The size of its semi-major axis is 560 pc (~1825 light-years)."

The three brightest galaxies, including NGC 4314, are logically at similar distances, around z=0.002 to 0.003, or between 26 and 39 million light-years. The qasar at z=1.55 is 9 billion light-years away, magnitude 19.

C11 XLT, f/7.3 with Starizona red dot, F=2056mm
April 7, 2026: 153x180" = 7.65h, no filter
April 8, 2026: 141x180" = 7.05h, Antlia tri-band Total 14h42 ZWO 533MC pro, Asiair mini, no filter, OAG with ASI 220 mini
AZEQ6 mount serviced 2025
Siril, SetiAstro,Veralux Starcomposer