Object	NGC253
Scale	3.55 arc-secs/pixel
North angle	5.88°
Date	09/30/00
Location	Lockwood Valley, CA
Equipment	TeleVue 101, ST7E, GM8
Processing	6 X 120 Sec. exp. sum, Gamma Stretch and DDP, Photoshop combine, resize 60%
Notes	Shorter exposures might help the bloated stars. 20 exposures at 1 minute would be better. Focus and seeing were quite good.
Background	Spiral galaxy NGC 253, also known as the Sculptor Galaxy or Silver Coin Galaxy, lies 10,000,000 light years away in the Sculptor Group magnitude 8. The Sculptor group of galaxies are thought to be the closest group to our local group of galaxies including such objects as our Milky Way, Andromeda Galaxy, Large and the Small Magellanic Cloud, Triangulum Galaxy and several others. The Sculptor Galaxy is a starburst galaxy. Like our own galaxy, intense star formation is taking place. Several huge, bright globular clusters may be seen just outside and on the disk. The details in the spiral arms illustrates how much matter is in this object.