NGC 3521, also known as the Bubble Galaxy, is a majestic spiral galaxy located in the constellation Leo. This galaxy is characterized by its bright core and the distinctive, bubble-like structures of its spiral arms. These features give it a unique appearance, making it a favorite target for astrophotographers and astronomers alike. The galaxy lies approximately 26 million light-years from Earth and spans about 50,000 light-years in diameter.

This detailed image of NGC 3521 was captured with a total exposure time of 22 hours and 21 minutes. The breakdown of the exposure times is as follows: 347 minutes for the luminance filter, and 85 minutes each for the red, green, and blue filters, with individual exposures of 120 seconds. This long integration time allowed for the capture of the intricate details and subtle structures within the galaxy, highlighting its vibrant colors and the delicate nature of its spiral arms. The result is a breathtaking view of the Bubble Galaxy, showcasing its beauty and complexity.

Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years away, toward the constellation Leo. Relatively bright in planet Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes but often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other Leo spiral galaxies, like M66 and M65. It's hard to overlook in this colorful cosmic portrait, (APOD)

***Processing Information till now this has been the most difficult object to process, i spent more than 20+hrs processing this galaxy, i used Photoshop,ccd stack and pixinsight,structure pulling was mainly done by layers and mask, as it was quite dim so combination of noise reduction and masking helped a lot , adding more tone to structure was done in Pixinsight thanks to dear friend marcel for some final color correction. Ps : the signal was way to faint so only option was these

All data shot from Remote observatory

technical Details : 16"F3.7 Dream Scope Astrograph, FLI PL16803 CCD,BadderLRGBha filters Around 291Mins of L 125mins of Red Green Blue 600sec X 6 Bin 2x2 halpha 11.85 hrs total LRGBha Data under Prestine Dark skies of New Mexico

Copyright: Utkarsh Mishra,Michael Petrasko,Muir Evenden

NGC 3521 often termed the Bubble Galaxy is a flocculent intermediate spiral galaxy located around 35 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Leo. It is a spiral galaxy with a trace of a bar structure , a weak inner ring , and moderate to loosely wound arm structure. The galaxy spans 50,000 light years which is approximately half that of our galaxy the Milky Way.
Imaged in LRGB H alpha on my Officina Stellare RiDK 500 telescope at El Sauce (Obstech) Atacama Desert, Chile.

15 hours Luminance, 11 hours Ha, 5 hours each RGB bin 2.

Copyright: Mike Selby