Tony Flanders wrote:

Until recently, the galaxy NGC 2903 somehow slipped under my radar...

Impossible to believe I might have beat you to something...

Last spring, I got my first serious look, using Godzilla, the 36-inch
Dob...

I used a TeleVue 76 :--)

The most prominent feature of this galaxy is its huge, bright bar...

As seen at http://www.davidillig.com/ast-ngc2903.shtml. I decided to
try to photograph it as a target of opportunity in February of 2005.
The bottom photo on the referenced page shows a wider portion of the
DSLR frame, with a bonus galaxy -- NGC 2916, a spiral galaxy about
which little is known.

What really surprises me is that people so rarely talk about this
galaxy. Everybody's heard of NGC 4565, or 891, or 253. But
NGC 2903 is as interesting as any of those, and far brighter
and more complex than most of the Messier galaxies, yet it
somehow seems consigned to the second class.

OK, OK, you win. I've put a note in my calendar to look for it visually
next March.

Nice report. Thanks.

Davoud

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usenet *at* davidillig dawt com