The Southern Pinwheel is a magnificent face-on barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Hydra. It lies about 15 million light years from Earth and forms a small group with its equally famous partner, Centaurus A or NGC 5128. This object was discovered by Nicholas Louise de Lacaille at the Cape of Good Hope, Africa on February 23, 1752. Charles Messier observed and cataloged it nearly 30 years later from his Paris Observatory, an outstanding feat considering his northerly location and relatively primitive equipment. Positioned at a declination of -29°54", this object is a difficult challenge for northern hemisphere observers and imagers because of the fact that, even at transit, it does not rise very high in the southern sky. Trying to image and guide though 2+ air masses can be quite frustrating!

In his classic book Galaxies, the American astronomer Harlow Shapley wrote that M 83's dynamic appearance was "spectacular evidence that the universe is not static."