NGC 1232 is a barred spiral galaxy of about 200,000 light-years across, which is almost twice the size of the Milky Way. It is located around 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus. Radio wave studies indicate a large envelope of neutral gas extending well beyond the optical extent of the galaxy.
Along with its satellite galaxy NGC 1232A (about 68 million light-years away. It is also cataloged as Arp 41 in the peculiar galaxy catalog.
NGC 1232 has a small bulge and long spiral arms that flare out from the center of the galaxy. The thin arms are unusually numerous. Open clusters containing bright blue stars can be seen along these spiral arms, with dark dust lanes between arms.
Imaged in LRGB on our CDK 1000 for Luminance and RiDK 700 for RGB at El Sauce, Obstech, Chile
Integration time on 1232 is 15 hours of Lum, 6 hours RGB per channel
Image Processing: Mike Selby