This beautiful face on galaxy boasts dozens of very large and bright emission nebula across its face. These pink hydrogen clouds are regions of potential future star formation. The galaxy is low surface brightness despite it being 10th magnitude, and only the central region is easy to see telescopically. Note that most of the nebula lie on the inside of the bluish arms. The seeing was slightly better than average, and the total exposure time was about 104 minutes.

Instrument:  12.5" f/5 Newtonian
CCD Camera:  SBIG237
Exposure:  LRGB = 40:20:20:24 (RGB Binned 2x2)
Filters:  RGB Tricolor
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing 8/10, Transparency 8/10
Temperature:  25 F