Through Light and Time (2026)

26/09/2026

A southern spiral larger than the Milky Way, seen as it was 108 million years ago

NGC 7083 is a spiral galaxy in the far-southern constellation Indus, discovered by James Dunlop from Parramatta in 1826. It is classified SA(s)bc in the Third Reference Catalogue, with the alternate classification SAB(rs)c pointing to a weak bar and an inner ring, and it hosts a LINER nucleus, a sign of low-level activity around its central black hole
Its light has travelled about 108 million years to reach us. The galaxy spans roughly 4.9 arcminutes on the sky, which at that distance corresponds to a true diameter of about 152,000 light-years, making it somewhat larger than the Milky Way. It shines at a total blue magnitude of about 11.9
The disk centres on a compact pale-yellow nucleus ringed by the tightest segments of the spiral pattern, which close around the bulge into a near-complete inner ring. From there two principal arms unwind, each splitting within its first quarter turn into a tight inner ridge and a broad outer sweep, the southern branch reaching well beyond its northern counterpart before dissolving into a faint tail. The inner disk is laced with a dense network of brown dust lanes that cut spurs across the gaps between the arms, while chains of pink hydrogen-alpha regions and two conspicuously bright blue star-forming complexes mark the ridges where new stars are being born. NGC 7083 has hosted at least three observed supernovae, including SN 2009hm and SN 2019qar, both core-collapse events of Type Ib, a mark of the massive stars forming along its arms
Beyond the galaxy the field is scattered with far more distant systems, edge-on spirals and orange ellipticals lying hundreds of millions of light-years behind it
The combination of a LINER nucleus, vigorous star formation that reaches into the faint outer disk, and a history of stripped-envelope supernovae makes NGC 7083 a galaxy caught mid-stride, feeding its core at a modest rate while its outer disk continues to build new generations of stars

Imaged in LRGB on ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500, Camera Moravian C5A 150M, at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby
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22/09/2026

NGC 7098 – a galaxy that built itself in rings
Three concentric structures, each a different chapter of one galaxy's history, all locked in step around a single luminous core
NGC 7098 is a double-barred ringed spiral in the far southern constellation of Octans, classified (R)SAB(rs)a, where the (R) denotes a detached outer ring and (rs) a transitional inner ring wrapped around the bar
It lies about 95 million light-years away and recedes at 2381 km/s, spanning 5.5 arcminutes on the sky, which at that distance corresponds to a true diameter of roughly 152,000 light-years, making it appreciably larger than the Milky Way, and it shines at visual magnitude 11.3
The structure is layered from the inside out. A bright, smooth, warm-toned bulge sits within a broad oval lens formed by the large-scale bar, its ends flaring into faint ansae. Around this lies the inner ring, tightly wound and studded with small dust knots and faint reddish star-forming clumps. A deep dark gap of almost empty disc separates it from the outer ring, a wide band of bluish arms that appear to have wrapped around the galaxy so completely that they closed into a near-perfect ellipse. Beyond that, a faint diffuse halo fades into the background. A slender edge-on background spiral lies just to the west, unrelated and far more distant, with numerous faint galaxies scattered across the field
NGC 7098 has no confirmed companion at comparable velocity within this field, so its rings are a product of internal dynamics rather than interaction. Bars drive gas to their resonances, where it piles up and forms stars, and the inner and outer rings mark exactly those orbital resonances. The double bar, a small secondary bar nested inside the main one, is an efficient channel for feeding gas inward toward the nucleus. The galaxy is a textbook example of how a bar can reorganise an entire disc into rings without any outside help

Imaged in LRGB on ASA AZ 1500, Camera Moravian C5A 150M, at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby
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19/09/2026

NGC 7038
A grand spiral anchoring a galaxy cluster at the heart of the Pavo–Indus Supercluster
NGC 7038 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Indus, classified SAB(s)c, indicating a weak central bar from which two dominant arms unwind in an s-shaped pattern rather than emerging from a ring
Its distance, from the mean of redshift-independent measurements, is 200 million light-years. The disc spans 4.5 arcminutes on its major axis, corresponding to a physical diameter of about 261,000 light-years, roughly two and a half times the size of the Milky Way, with a visual magnitude near 12.5
A compact, warm-toned bulge anchors two principal arms, tightly wound near the centre and opening steadily outward. Broad dust lanes trace the inner edges of both arms and thread through the bulge in dark filaments that give the core its mottled texture. Along the outer arms the colour shifts to blue, with chains of star-forming knots and HII regions marking the arm ridges, and a faint extended disc continues beyond them where the spiral pattern dissolves into diffuse starlight
NGC 7038 is one of the two brightest members of the galaxy cluster Abell 3742, alongside the lenticular NGC 7014. The cluster sits near the centre of the Pavo–Indus Supercluster, one of the major mass concentrations of the nearby universe, and the surrounding field is scattered with fainter cluster members and distant background galaxies
The galaxy has hosted three recorded supernovae, SN 1983L, the Type II SN 2010dx and the Type Ia SN 2018hsa, reflecting the vigorous star formation visible along the arms. Despite living in a dense cluster environment where discs are often stripped or quenched, NGC 7038 has retained a large gas reservoir and remains an actively star-forming late-type spiral
Imaged in LRGB on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500, Camera Moravian C5A 150M, at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile�
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby�www.throughlightandtime.com�www.instagram.com/throughlightandtime/�www.facebook.com/masterdarksastro/

14/09/2026

Dust, fire, and starlight on a tilted disk — with a small companion in tow

NGC 4835 is a luminous intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Centaurus, classified as SAB(rs)bc — a mixed-family system with a weakly developed bar, an inner pseudo-ring, and moderately wound spiral arms. The galaxy is presented at a steep inclination of roughly 75 to 80 degrees, foreshortening the disk into a long elongated form and revealing its internal structure in striking cross-section.
Located at a distance of approximately 75.6 million light-years, NGC 4835 spans about 88,000 light-years across, with an apparent angular size of roughly 4.0 × 0.9 arcminutes and a visual magnitude near 12.4. Modest in brightness for its size, it nevertheless resolves into a richly textured disk under deep, high-resolution imaging.
The structure of NGC 4835 is dominated by a complex dust lane that cuts across the near side of the inclined disk, partially obscuring the elongated central bulge and producing the characteristic dark spine seen in steeply tilted spirals. Strung along the disk on either side of the dust are numerous bright pink H II regions — emission complexes marking active sites of massive star formation — interleaved with clusters of young blue stars that trace the underlying spiral pattern. The disk shows a mild asymmetry in surface brightness, with the southwestern end appearing slightly flared and more loosely structured than the northeastern end. The compact, slightly elongated core glows with a warmer, yellow-tinted stellar population and is suspected of harbouring a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus.
Immediately south of NGC 4835 lies its small companion PGC 516792, a faint edge-on Sd-type spiral viewed perfectly side-on. With a heliocentric velocity of 2228 km/s — only about 47 km/s greater than that of NGC 4835 — the pair share the same velocity space and lie at compatible distances, marking them as genuine members of the loose galaxy grouping catalogued as LDC 939. PGC 516792 lies at approximately 100 million light-years, spans about 24,000 light-years across, and shines at total corrected blue magnitude 14.3 with an absolute magnitude near −18.1 — a small, low-mass disk galaxy roughly four times smaller than its larger neighbour. Despite the proximity in projection, neither galaxy shows obvious signs of tidal disturbance, suggesting that any gravitational interaction between them remains gentle, distant, or of long duration.
Together, the pair occupies a quiet southern region of the sky and embodies the ordinary, slow evolution of disk galaxies in low-density environments — steady star formation in NGC 4835's tilted disk, the unhurried turning of its smaller neighbour, and the slow gravitational dance of a small galaxy group continuing largely undisturbed by major mergers or close encounters

Imaged in LRGB on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500 Camera Moravian C5A150Mat Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby

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10/09/2026

Bright enough to catalog, faint enough to disappear at a glance

Some galaxies hide in plain sight, their light so diffuse it seems to flicker in and out of existence at the eyepiece
NGC 6118 is a grand-design spiral of morphological type SA(s)cd, sitting near the very end of the spiral sequence, its arms wound loose and open around so slight a central bulge that it is nearly a pure disk of stars, gas, and vigorous star formation
It lies roughly 67 million light-years away in the constellation Serpens Caput, spanning about 5.1 arcminutes on the sky, which at that distance corresponds to a physical diameter near 100,000 light-years, close in size to our own Milky Way
The loosely wound arms are studded with brilliant blue-white knots where hot, massive young stars have recently ignited, interleaved with rose-colored emission from hydrogen clouds and darker lanes of obscuring dust that trace the spiral pattern inward toward the pale golden core
In 2004 a star in one of these arms reached the end of its life as supernova SN 2004dk, a type Ib explosion whose light briefly rivaled that of the surrounding star fields before fading over the following months
NGC 6118 carries the nickname the Blinking Galaxy among visual observers, a reflection of its low surface brightness, it slips from view under direct vision and returns with averted gaze, a reminder that some of the sky's most structured objects often reveal themselves only to patience and dark skies

Imaged in LRGB on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500, Camera Moravian C5A 150M, at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile
�Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby
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06/09/2026

A distant spiral unfolding across deep space, surrounded by a rich background field of galaxies

NGC 4603 is a late-type spiral galaxy in the constellation Centaurus. Catalog classifications list it as SA(s)c? in RC3, with alternative entries such as SA(rs)bc, reflecting some uncertainty in its internal structure. Based on the structure resolved in this dataset, the morphology appears more consistent with SA(rs)bc: an unbarred spiral with a subtle inner pseudo-ring tendency and moderately open arms that retain more coherence than a fully flocculent Sc system, yet are not tightly wound enough for an Sb classification.
NGC 4603 lies at a distance of approximately 115 million light-years. In this view, its visible extent is about 3.4 × 2.6 arcminutes, corresponding to a physical size of roughly 115,000 × 88,000 light-years.
The galaxy exhibits a fragmented but structured spiral pattern, with numerous star-forming regions embedded within its arms and faint dust features tracing the inner disk. Its color appears noticeably muted compared to more actively star-forming spirals, with softer blue tones and limited red H II contrast. This is largely due to a combination of factors: the galaxy hosts a moderate, rather than intense, level of star formation; its light is dominated in part by older, more neutral stellar populations; and at this distance many individual star-forming regions are not fully resolved, causing their light to blend into the surrounding disk and reduce overall color contrast. The result is a more subtle, low-contrast chromatic appearance than is typically seen in closer or more active spiral galaxies. The central bulge is compact and luminous, transitioning into asymmetric spiral arms that show a mild lopsidedness, with one side more strongly developed than the other. A subtle inner curvature around the core suggests a weak pseudo-ring, while beyond the main arms a faint, extended envelope reveals a larger low surface brightness disk.
The surrounding field is densely populated with distant galaxies of varying morphology, adding depth and scale to the scene and emphasizing the vast distances along this line of sight.
NGC 4603 is also historically significant as one of the first galaxies beyond the Virgo Cluster in which Cepheid variable stars were measured using the Hubble Space Telescope, contributing to early calibration of the extragalactic distance scale

Imaged in LRGB on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500 Camera Moravian C5A150M at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby

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01/09/2026

A synchrotron-dominated shell that accelerates particles beyond 100 TeV, and one of the strongest cases we have for cosmic ray production in the Galaxy
G347.3−0.5, also catalogued as RX J1713.7−3946, is a young shell-type supernova remnant in Scorpius, and one of the few remnants whose X-ray emission is almost entirely non-thermal synchrotron radiation rather than shock-heated plasma.
It lies at approximately 3,300 light years, spans roughly 60 by 50 arcminutes, and measures about 58 by 48 light years across, close to twice the apparent diameter of the Moon
Optically it is among the most difficult targets of its size in the sky, and this field is dominated instead by the star clouds of the Scorpius tail, threaded by dark absorbing clouds and diffuse hydrogen emission, with the remnant registering only as faint curved filaments of Hα and no meaningful OIII present, Ha is strongest toward the west where the X-ray and TeV shell is brightest
Near the centre lies 1WGA J1713.4−3949, a compact X-ray source with the temperature and spectrum of a central compact object, almost certainly the neutron star left by the explosion, while the molecular clouds along the western rim are both the gas the blast wave is now striking and the measurement that fixed the distance
Expansion of the outer filaments gives shock speeds near 3,900 kilometres per second and an age between roughly 1,500 and 2,300 years, which keeps alive the proposal that this is the remnant of the guest star recorded in the tail of Scorpius in AD 393, from a progenitor of some 12 to 16 solar masses that had already carved a wind-blown cavity before collapsing
Its importance lies in the spectrum rather than the appearance, since the gamma rays reaching about 100 TeV are the central test of whether the emission comes from accelerated electrons scattering starlight or from accelerated protons striking the surrounding gas, the second of which would be direct evidence that supernova remnants are the origin of Galactic cosmic rays
Imaged in Hα RGB on the PlaneWave DR 350, Camera Moravian C5-100, at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby
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28/08/2026

A luminous spiral shaped by ongoing star formation, quietly evolving in the depths of Vela

NGC 3261 is a barred spiral galaxy classified as SB(rs)b, located in the constellation Vela
Its structure reveals a well-defined central bar feeding into moderately wound spiral arms, with a subtle inner ring-like feature guiding material outward into the disk. The galaxy is also an Hα emission-line system, indicating active star formation distributed along its spiral arms
At a mean redshift-independent distance of approximately 88 million light-years, NGC 3261 spans an apparent size of 3.2 × 2.8 arcminutes, corresponding to a physical diameter of roughly 82,000 light-years. This places it somewhat smaller than the Milky Way, yet still a substantial spiral with clearly organized structure
The spiral arms are rich in young, blue stellar populations, interspersed with darker dust lanes that trace the underlying density waves. Numerous star-forming regions punctuate the arms, contributing to the galaxy’s textured and slightly knotty appearance. The central bulge, dominated by older stars, shows a warm golden tone that contrasts with the cooler outer disk, reflecting the underlying stellar population gradient
A small companion galaxy appears just below the main disk, and a faint distorted structure extends further downward, suggesting a minor interaction or tidal influence. While not a dramatic merger, these features hint at gravitational interplay that may have subtly influenced the spiral pattern and triggered localized star formation

Imaged in LRGB on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500 Camera Moravian C5A150M at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby

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23/08/2026

A spiral galaxy pulled off balance, its structure reshaped into a sweeping tidal arc

NGC 4027 is a barred spiral galaxy of morphological type SB(s)dm pec, located in the constellation Corvus. Its striking asymmetry is driven by an ongoing gravitational interaction with its companion NGC 4027A, visible just below, which has disrupted the galaxy’s original spiral pattern
At a distance of approximately 83 million light-years, NGC 4027 spans about 3.2 × 2.4 arcminutes, corresponding to a physical size of roughly 75,000 light-years. While modest in scale, it stands out as one of the clearest nearby examples of a tidally distorted spiral galaxy
Its defining feature is the dominant, elongated spiral arm, which wraps around the galaxy in a pronounced arc, giving rise to its “ringtail” appearance. Unlike a regular spiral arm, this structure shows a subtle change in curvature, reflecting its origin as a tidally driven feature rather than a stable density wave. Along this arc, patchy clusters of blue star-forming regions appear unevenly distributed, the result of localized gas compression triggered by the interaction. On the opposite side, the secondary arm is weak and truncated, leaving the galaxy effectively in a one-armed, or m=1, configuration
The inner structure also reveals the disturbance: the bar is slightly offset, and the transition from core to disk is unusually soft, suggesting that the stellar distribution has been dynamically heated and redistributed. Dust lanes appear fragmented rather than continuous, further indicating that the gas disk has been disrupted. Beyond the main structure, the outer halo is asymmetric, extending farther along the dominant arm while dropping off more abruptly elsewhere, hinting at the early stages of a tidal envelope. There is also a subtle elongation toward NGC 4027A, a faint signature of the gravitational connection between the two galaxies
NGC 4027 provides a vivid example of how tidal forces can transform a galaxy, driving it away from symmetry and into a dynamically evolving state. The emergence of its single dominant arm captures a transient phase in galactic evolution, where gravitational interaction reshapes both structure and star formation across tens of thousands of light-years

Imaged in LRGB on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500 Camera Moravian C5A150M at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby

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18/08/2026

A Compton-Thick Heart Within a Misaligned Double Ring

NGC 4941 is an intermediate barred spiral in the constellation Virgo, classified (R)SAB(r)ab — a weak bar, a bright inner ring, and a far fainter outer pseudo-ring, with two smooth, low-contrast arms emerging tangentially from an elongated, twisted bulge
At a mean redshift-independent distance of approximately 44.6 million light-years, with an apparent size of 3.9 × 2.7 arcminutes and a visual magnitude of 11.2, the bright optical disk spans roughly 50,000 light-years, while the smooth near-infrared envelope extends to nearly 61,000 light-years
Tightly wound dust lanes thread the inner ring and the leading edges of the arms. Two chains of blue OB complexes trace the current star formation — one along the eastern inner ring, the other arcing inside the western arm — several accompanied by pink-magenta Hα knots marking compact HII regions. Star formation is sharply confined to the inner ring and innermost arm segments while the outer disk lies almost entirely passive, gas concentrating and igniting near the inner Lindblad resonance. The faint outer pseudo-ring is visibly misaligned with the inner disk — rounder, more face-on, and rotated relative to the brighter inner ellipse — the signature of a warped outer disk or oval distortion decoupled from the bar
At the center lies one of the nearest Compton-thick Seyfert 2 nuclei, with a column density approaching 3 × 10²⁴ cm⁻² and a prominent Fe Kα line marking a low-luminosity active nucleus buried behind cold, dense gas. The supermassive black hole, near 8 million solar masses, accretes quietly today
NGC 4941 anchors a small, loose group bearing its name, with NGC 4951 as its principal companion, several faint background systems scattered across the surrounding field — a quiet neighborhood in a quiet corner of Virgo
Imaged in LRGB on the ASA Astrosysteme AZ 1500, Camera Moravian C5A 100M, at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile�Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby
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