NGC 253 is a spiral ”starburst” galaxy located 13 million light years away in the constellation of Sculptor.
The galaxy is undergoing very heavy and violent star formation and has an incredible amount of cosmic dust. It is also one of the brightest spiral galaxies that we can observe.
Given the relative proximity to us in cosmic terms a number of H alpha regions showing some structure are easily discernible.
The galaxy is large in the field of view and is a very popular object for astrophotographers.
Imaged in LRGB on my Planewave CDK 700 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image acquisition and processing: Mike Selby