This rather colorful SBb type barred spiral in Ursa major is a true gem amongst the multitudes of galaxies in this constellation. It is very bright at magnitude 10.8, and is 6.9x3.4 arcmins in extent. Outside the yellow core, bar and cusps, are blue spiral arms dotted with very small HII regions. The field also has quite a number of faint nondescript galaxies to see. All are 17th to 19th magnitude, and other than than the anonymous Mitchell Galaxy catalog designation, very little is available on them.

Instrument:  12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian
Platform:  Astrophysics 1200 QMD
CCD Camera:  SBIG ST7E w/Enhanced Cooling
Exposure:  L(LRGB) = 60:20:20:36 (RGB Binned 2x2)
Filters:  RGB Tricolor
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing FMHW = 2.1 arcsec, Transparency 8/10
Outside Temperature:  0 C
CCD Temperature:  -35 C
Processing:  Maxim DL, Photoshop, AIP4WIN, PW Pro.