NGC 7331 (the brightest galaxy in the picture) is a spiral
galaxy of visual magnitude 9.5 and at a distance of 46 million
light years. The picture also contains nine fainter galaxies. The
most prominent four of these are about 500 million light years
away.
This spiral reveals a high level of detail despite the galaxies
inclination to the line of sight. This galaxy is particularly
interesting because it is so similar to our own galaxy. It has
about the save size, a similar sized black hole at the centre and
the spiral structure is also similar. Like most spiral galaxies,
the nucleus is full of old red stars were as the spiral arms
contain young blue stars.
Date
Luminance: 29th August 2006
Telescope
250mm F4.8 Newtonian Reflector with coma corrector
