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Ring of fire

Vikas Chander, taken from Observatorio El Sauce, Chile

NGC 1291 (also cataloged as NGC 1269) lies 33 million light-years away in Eridanus. At 12 billion years old, the galaxy has lost most of its spiral structure and matured into a transitional state — yet it has an outer ring that still forming stars, appearing blue in this shot. The imager used a remotely operated 24-inch scope to take LRGB exposures of 7 hours 21 minutes, 1.5 hours, 1.5 hours, and 1.5 hours, respectively.