I'm a sucker for an underdog. I love small, dim constellations, obscure objects, the shoulda-been-Messiers, and the less popular neighbors of whatever's on the "Best of" lists. I also like pushing my binoculars, and myself, to see as much as possible. Given all these proclivities, it might seem a little odd that it's taken me this long to cover NGC 2903, a barred spiral galaxy in Leo, the Lion. I don't see a lot of chatter about this rather isolated gem, but at magnitude 9.0 it's brighter than any of the Messier galaxies in Leo other than M66, which just barely edges it out at 8.9. NGC 2903 is an easy find, too: Drop down 1.5° straight south from 4.3-magnitude Lambda (λ) Leonis and look for a tiny wisp of light. There's nothing else nearby, giving the galaxy the lonely aspect of a mouse before the mighty celestial lion.
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