March 2020 - Picture of the Month
NGC 3344 in the Constellation of Leo Minor
I've gone for another galaxy image this month, and this time there's no mitigating nebulosity around. But we are entering the season for galaxies.
All the same it is a stunning object and one that I've observed with my 10-inch reflector a couple of years ago in pursuit of the Herschel 400. It was very faint and I almost missed it in my suburban skies. It certainly didn't look like this, I particularly noted that I couldn't see any texture!
If you visit Bernhard's web page, and I suggest that you do, there's an image that points out some faint galaxies in this field. This included a new dwarf galaxy discovered by a pro-am group called Tief Belichtete Galaxien (TBG) to which Bernhard seems to contribute. It's inspiring to see that there's some real science being done by amateur astrophotographers.
James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.
