This weird-looking object is an extremely rare polar-ring galaxy, lying at a distance of approx 45 million lightyears. It is likely to be the result of a galaxy merger, that took place around a billion years ago.
The remains of one of the galaxies is distributed as a ring around the central lenticular galaxy, but inclined at an angle of around 45 degrees to the plane of the central galaxy. Material from the outer ring galaxy can be seen as a prominent dust lane and as elongated 'wings'.
This peculiar galaxy is very small and faint, near the limits of an 8-inch reflector, to image satisfactorily.
This LRGBHa image is the result of 4h of data capture (LRGB 3h, Ha 1h) from Horsham, over two evenings in November 2021 and January 2022. A ZWO ASI2600MM Pro cooled mono camera was used, through an 8-inch Teleskop-Service Ritchey-Chretien reflector.
Date: 04/01/2022
Location: Horsham, West Sussex
Photographer: Graham Wilcock
