Last month I spent two nights capturing this beautiful spiral galaxy in Camelopardalis. NGC 2403 sits about 8 million light-years away and is an outlying member of the M81 Group — one of the closest galaxy groups to our own Local Group.
Equipment
- Telescope: Orion 8″ 1000mm f/4.9 Newtonian reflector
- Mount: Orion Atlas EQ-G
- Imaging Camera: Canon T3i (full spectrum modification)
- Guide Scope: Meade 800mm f/10 reduced to f/5 with Atik x.5 focal reducer
- Guide Camera: Meade DSI Pro monochrome 16-bit
Capture Details
- Integration: 65 x 180sec exposures (3.25 hours total)
- Captured: Across two nights in February 2026
- Software: N.I.N.A 3.1 for capture, Siril 1.4.0 for stacking
- Resolution: 5030 x 3137 pixels
About This Object
NGC 2403 (Caldwell 7) is an intermediate spiral galaxy, similar in structure to M33 in our own Local Group. At 8 million light-years distant, it’s close enough to show beautiful detail in modest equipment, including bright star-forming regions along its spiral arms.
This was captured from my light-polluted backyard in Tennessee, proving you don’t need dark skies to image galaxies — just patience and good guiding!
