NGC 3981 is an unbarred spiral galaxy 65 million light years away in the constellation of Crater.
There are many areas of dust and star forming regions and a clear disc area with numerous hot young stars.
The spiral arm structure is unusual as they are spread out and indicate some type of proximate gravitational encounter with another galaxy sometime in the past.
Imaged in LRGB and H alpha on our Planewave CDK 1000 and CDK 700. Image Processing Mike Selby and Mark Hanson.
Total Integration time: 43 hours