NGC 2835

From time to time, I obtain data sets from remote observatories around the world. One of my favorite providers is Telescope Live, which operates telescopes in locations such as Chile, Australia, and Spain. One of the datasets I received in 2020 featured the spiral galaxy NGC 2835, located in the constellation Hydra.

NGC 2835 is a relatively nearby barred spiral galaxy, situated at a distance of approximately 35–40 million light-years. Classified as SBc, it displays a loosely wound spiral structure with numerous star-forming regions distributed across its disk. Unlike highly symmetric grand-design spirals, NGC 2835 has a softer and more irregular appearance, giving the galaxy a particularly natural and dynamic character in deep images.

One of the most striking aspects of NGC 2835 is its rich population of H II regions, visible as small bluish and reddish knots embedded within the spiral arms. These are active stellar nurseries where hot young stars ionize the surrounding hydrogen gas. Deep exposures also reveal a delicate network of dark dust lanes crossing the inner regions of the galaxy and extending outward into the spiral arms.

Scientifically, NGC 2835 is interesting because it represents a relatively undisturbed late-type spiral galaxy with ongoing but moderate star formation activity. Its loosely organized structure provides insight into how spiral density waves and local star formation processes interact within galactic disks. Observations across multiple wavelengths have shown extensive regions of diffuse ionized gas and large populations of young stellar associations spread throughout the galaxy.

The high-quality Telescope Live dataset allowed for detailed processing of both the bright inner regions and the faint outer structures of the galaxy. Numerous background galaxies are also visible throughout the field, emphasizing the depth of the image and the vast scale of the universe beyond the comparatively nearby foreground spiral.

Data calibration and registration and the final processing was done with PixInsight. The result was as follows: