NGC253, a galaxy in the constellation Sculptor, is classified as a starburst galaxy – one undergoing rapid star formation. M82 in Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) is the first such galaxy that I photographed, and it literally looks like it is exploding.
In the part of the sky where we find NGC253, we can also see NGC288 – a globular cluster in our own Milky Way.
The two objects are completely unrelated except for the happy accident that they are visible in the same field. Below, I show that field in an image that is comprised of 15, 6-minute exposures. Then there is a cropped image of NGC253. Because of the angle at which we see it, it looks to me more like a surfboard than a coin. In fact, there is a galaxy called the surfboard galaxy that looks much like NGC253. The final image is a cropped picture of the globular cluster NGC288.
