NGC 1365-R

This view of the inner area of NGC 1365 was obtained through a red (R) optical filter with the VLT Test Camera (TC), mounted at one of the Nasmyth foci of VLT UT1. Dark dust clouds that obscure the light from objects behind them are seen along the bar and spiral arms. The gravitational action of the bar structure drives the large dust lanes into the nuclear region where intense star forming activity takes place. The exposure time was 900 seconds and the image quality is 0.5 arcsec (FWHM). North is up and East is left.