NGC 3521, a captivating spiral galaxy residing some 26 million light-years away in Leo, showcases a mature spiral structure characterized by pronounced arms adorned with intricate dust lanes, a testament to the galaxy's advanced evolutionary stage. Notably, NGC 3521 stands out for its relatively low rate of star formation compared to peers, prompting astronomers to delve into the environmental and internal factors shaping its stellar populations.

At the heart of NGC 3521 lies a dense central bulge, a congregation of aging stars that bears witness to the galaxy's extensive cosmic journey. This feature offers a glimpse into the galactic spheroid's rich history and the complex interplay of astrophysical forces governing its stellar dynamics. As astronomers unravel the mysteries within NGC 3521, they navigate a scientific frontier, exploring the unique characteristics that define this spiral marvel and shedding light on the diverse pathways of galactic evolution in the cosmic tapestry.

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