From The European Southern Observatory
This image of the large spiral galaxy NGC 1232 was obtained on September 21, 1998, during a period of good observingconditions. It is based on three exposures in ultra-violet, blue and red light, respectively. The central areas contain older stars of reddish color, while the spiral arms are populated by young, blue stars and many star-forming regions. Note the distorted companion galaxy on the left sideshaped like the greek letter "theta".
NGC 1232 is located 20 degrees south of the celestial equator, in the constellation Eridanus (The River) at a distance is about 100 million light-years. The edge of the field shown corresponds to about 200,000 light years, or about twice the size of the Milky Way galaxy.
This image is a composite of three images taken through three different filters: U (360 nm; 10 min), B (420 nm; 6 min) and R (600 nm; 2:30 min) during a period of 0.7 arcsec seeing. The fields shown measure 6.8 x 6.8 arcmin and 1.6 x 1.8 arcmin, respectively. North is up; East is to the left.
Based on press release with ESO PR Photo 37d/98
Catalog #: Photo 37d/98
Target Name: Spiral Galaxy NGC 1232
Last Modified On: Friday, November 10, 2000