Spiraling

This is NGC 3718, a warped galaxy in Ursa Major with a twisted dust lane and a shape that barely resembles a classic spiral. I captured this at the beginning of March, aiming to reveal both the strong internal distortion and the faint outer features surrounding the galaxy.

To the left of NGC 3718 in the image, you can see the Hickson Compact Group 56 — a tight cluster of interacting galaxies. NGC 3729, the galaxy most likely responsible for the warping, is just out of frame.

I also took a decent amount of H-alpha data for this target, but there didn’t seem to be any significant emission structures visible — probably due to the lack of organized star-forming regions, which isn’t surprising given how distorted the galaxy is. In the end, I decided not to include it.

This one took some effort to bring out the structure and background without losing the chaotic center, but I really enjoyed processing it.