Constellation: Eridanus

Distance: 50-60 million light years

NGC 1232 was discovered in 1784 by the German-British astronomer William Herschel. It is an "intermediate spiral galaxy" (that is, in between the classifications of a barred spiral galaxy and an unbarred spiral galaxy; the small central bulge shows hints of a galactic bar).  It is situated close to the celestial equator, and as such, it is at least partly visible from both hemispheres at certain times of the year.  At magnitude +9.87, it is visible in binoculars and small telescopes.

NGC 1232 is viewed face on, domintated by  millions of brights stars and star clusters glowing blue and HIII regions glowing red within the spiral arms,  as well as dark dust in and between the arms, all rotating about the center. Rotational velocity measurements suggest a large component of invisible dark matter as well.

The galaxy is about 150,000-200,000 light years across,  almost twice the size of our Milky Way.