Interestingly enough, the Digital Sky Survey image of the Circinus Galaxy also only shows its core and no hint of its expansive disk, but I picked up this disk visually.
It was not until later that its true nature was discovered, and it ain't no dwarf, being 8.8' X 4.3' in size at 14 million light years away, it carries some heft as type Sb spiral with a diameter of 35,000 light years - no midget galaxy. * The Circinus Galaxy (PGC 50779) is sometimes still called The Circinus Dwarf Galaxy because during its discovery in the 1970's its core was the first thing that was noticed, and hence being called a dwarf because of its distance from Earth.
Hardly my more spectacular sketch, but one of my most rewarding! But the treasure is not its immediate size but that you are finally able to pull its huge size from a challenging foreground of the Milky Way. Certainly, the overall image of this galaxy is not the most stunning, in many ways it is a disappointment. The full, true large expanse of this galaxy that is listed in charts remains totally invisible without the time and constant moving of the scope. This sucker proved to be HUGE! and not the piddly soft puff that appears at first. I spent around 10 minutes laying down what I thought was the round puff of the galaxy, but when I started with the star field the constant and persistent nudging and back and forth I then spotted the angle's breath glow of the larger disc that surrounds the core of this member of the Council of Giants. I have viewed this galaxy a couple of time previous to my sketching it, and it was most underwhelming. One object in particular cemented this in my mind, the Circinus Galaxy *. With the time I spend with my sketching, combined with the nudge-nudge-nudge, I've been able to tease out details that would otherwise remain invisible with spending only a minute or two on a single object. I have good reason for not using a motorised mount for DSO's - you see more because your eyes are being continuously refreshed with that constant nudge-nudge-nudge.
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