NGC 6744 located in the southern constellation of Pavo, this beautiful 9th magnitude galaxy is about 25 million light years away. It is amongst a rich starfield, and is inclined to our line of sight. NGC 6744 is believed to be one of the most Milky Way-like of all the nearby spirals. It also has other similarities to the Milky Way with at least one distorted companion galaxy superficially similar to one of the Magellanic Clouds. Seen to the bottom left hand corner.

 Conditions- This was a test image for first light with the Orion ED80.On the 16th taking luminance at around 11.30pm just after the moon set seeing was fair to poor. Heavy dew and conditions deteriorated, so I wound up only taking a few red channel sub exposures.  On the 17th after the moon was beginning to set, conditions were average to good. I finished off the red channel and the remaining colours. The green channel I found due to the low altitude when I started they were a little bloated and then guiding and clarity improved. Could have taken some more luminance frames but decided to call it a night.