35 million light years away in Leo sits NGC 3521 the galaxy in a bubble.
A flocculent intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 3521, lacks the clearly defined arm structure that we see in some other spirals. Surrounded by dust the galaxy has numerous star forming areas and a luminous center. The dust bubbles are likely from encounters and mergers long ago with satellite galaxies. Of note is the Ha jet emanating from the Galaxy which is rarely captured in amateur images.
Imaged in LRGB and H alpha on our PlaneWave CDK 1000 and CDK 700 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile. Integration Time: L 15 hours RGB 5 hours each. Ha 15 hours.
Image Processing: Mark Hanson and Mike Selby