NGC 309 is one of the largest and most luminous spiral galaxies that have been observed.
It is situated approximately 260 million light years away in the constellation of Cetus which despite its large size is small in the field of view given its distance.
The galaxy has well defined branched spiral arms that are somewhat interwoven and linked by arcs.
There is a nearly complete inner ring, but the spiral structure however does not cross the ring into the nucleus of the galaxy.
The galaxy is set in a spectacular field of numerous distant background galaxies.
Imaged in LRGB on my Planewave CDK 1000 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image acquisition and processing: Mike Selby