The pink colour in the spiral arms suggests star-formation.
We view Bode’s Galaxy face-on, providing an opportunity to examine the structure of a typical galaxy: gently curving spiral arms extending uniformly from an intense core. At a distance of 12 million light-years, Bode’s Galaxy remains close enough to capture interesting details.
The brightly-illuminated intermediate region reveals elongated pink-coloured spines on the spiral arms. Since energetic hydrogen renders as pink, it suggests that these inner spines are star-forming regions. Further out, pink blemishes replace the elongated colouring of the spines.
This pattern of pink spines towards the centre and pink blemishes further out is not similar to that of the Andromeda Galaxy. There, the structure of a spiral arm is much more uniform. We don’t find a bright intermediate region that differs noticeably from the ends. Instead, we see clearly defined pink spines gradually dispersing only at the extremities.
To see these pink spines and blemishes close-up, simply point your telescope almost anywhere in the nightly display of the Milky Way. The California Nebula is an example of a star-forming nebula nearby on our own spiral arm. As we saw in other galaxies, it is illuminated in pink by energetic hydrogen.
Close-up, a star-forming nebula is an aesthetic feast for our imagination.
I photographed Bode’s Galaxy from my garden in Strasbourg France in April 2026 and March 2025. This final image was built from 180 photos, where each was a 3 minute exposure (9 hours of photography).
Equipment used to capture images:
- Telescope: Skywatcher Quattro 150/600
- Computer: ASIAIR
- Mount: AM5
- Filter: Optolong L-Pro
- Camera: ASI183MC-PRO
Processing Software:
- Pixinsight + WBPP
- Blur Exterminator
- Noise Exterminator
- Star Exterminator
- Seti Astro Suite
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