Hiding in plain sight

I’ve got something really cool to share with you today and I’m so excited! UGC 2838 holds a special place in many budding astrophotographer’s hearts because it is a little sliver of light that they inadvertently capture in their photos of the Pleiades star cluster and come to realize that it is actually a galaxy that is 300 MILLION lightyears away from Earth. I had just such a moment two years ago and posted about it. I couldn’t believe my telescope captured light that left its home galaxy before the dinosaurs even evolved on Earth!

As you may know by now, I am endlessly curious. So on a whim this year, I decided to point my biggest telescope at UGC 2838 to see if I could pull out any details from this super distant target which is doubly tough because we see it edge on. After 40 hours of exposures, I could just tease out the tantalizing hints of a spiral structure and some color.

I was surprised when looking around that I could not find a single other image of this object in this resolution. Not from anyone on Earth. Not from the Hubble space telescope. Nada.

So here it is folks. It looks a bit fuzzy since it is SO far away, but I believe that this may be the highest resolution image of this galaxy to-date. I thought this was a fitting way to cap my most active year of astronomy yet, as my favorite thing about this passion is sharing the wonder, beauty, and bewildering sights of our Universe with you.

I hope you have a wonderful New Years celebration and are ready to explore more together in 2023! In the meantime, keep your head up and keep.

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