My friend Dylan O'Donnell is an astrophotography beast! Check out this stunning image of the Sculptor Galaxy (or NGC 253), a beautiful spiral galaxy that's located about 11.5 million light-years away. It's the most massive member of the Sculptor group of galaxies, the closest group to our Local Group of galaxies. This beauty is a starburst galaxy, meaning it's undergoing star formation at a very high rate. This period of heavy star formation has resulted in the formation of lots of massive star clusters (or super star clusters) near the galactic core, and lots of the highest mass stars as well. But its high rate of star formation means that stellar winds from things like the production of such high mass stars and their resulting violent supernovae is blowing out much of the gas from the galaxy, leaving it without much for further star formation. Galaxies like M82 and the Antennae Galaxies (which are actually two galaxies colliding) are experiencing the same thing, and will result in the fate. Interesting how different galaxies are, isn't it? =) #Repost @dylan_odonnell_ with @repostapp ・・・ 2 hour and 27 mins of exposure time on The Sculptor galaxy has yielded my best galaxy image yet! That classic side on spiral shape. I used my new trick of using 2 different cameras - one for mono luminance and one for colour. This image is brought to you by Pink Floyd, Mr Robot and a bottle of South American Carmenere wine. #celestron 9.25 #qhy9 #qhy12 #astrophotography #byronbay #science #outreach #galaxy #celestronrocks #universetoday
