NGC-1365 is a very large, face-on barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation of Fornax, the furnace. This is the largest and brightest example of a face-on barred spiral galaxy in the northern sky. It lies at a distance of about 56 million light years from Earth and is almost 200,000 light years in diameter, almost twice the size of our own Milky Way galaxy. It is the dominant member of the Fornax Galaxy Cluster.
This image, acquired on January 13, 2016, is a 1 hour integration of 6 minute exposures through the Celestron C-11 at f/2, using the HyperStar III imaging system and the Starlight Express SXVR-H694C color CCD camera, operating at -10 degrees below ambient temperature and binned 1 X 1. Guided, captured and combined using Maxim DL5 Pro. Post processed using PhotoShop CS2, Gradient XTerminator, StarShrink, Carboni's Astro Tools and NoiseWare.