The bright spot in the centre of this galaxy is actually a star that went supernova millions of light years ago. This supernova, SN 2009dd, was detected only one week before this image was taken.

The image is a stack of 220 images of 10 seconds exposure each.

equipment used
Meade Starfinder 10
Philips Vesta Pro 680k webcam - SC3 with b/w ICX424AL-E ccd