One of the southern hemisphere's iconic objects, Centaurus A is the product of a collision estimated at 200 to 400 million years ago between a featureless elliptical galaxy and a spiral galaxy that contributed the dramatic dust lane. A fringe of blue stars above and, faintly, below the dust lane indicates the generation of young new stars in the resulting turbulence. It is about 13 million light-years away.
Imaged 19-21 January at Hacienda Los Andes, northern Chile, with a Takahashi FSQ-85 scope, QSI 583wsg camera and Lodestar guider on an AP Mach 1 mount and Eagle pier, the latter two supplied by the Hacienda. 4.5 hours of exposure.