NGC 7424

BARRED SPIRAL GALAXY IN GRUS

 (Image Centred at ra 22h:57m / dec -41:04)

September 2014 - Camping La Porteña, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

DATA

Type: Spiral Galaxy Type SB

Apparent Magnitude: 10.9

Apparent diameter: 9.5 x 8.1 arc minutes

Distance: 37.5 Million light years

IMAGE INFORMATION

TELESCOPE: 8" Orion Optics UK Mirror with Televue Paracorr (1150 mm focal length)

CAMERA: QSI 583 WS

FILTERS: Baader LRGB

SKY CONDITIONS: rural skies, foggy night

EXPOSURES: LRGB (120,30,30,30) RGB bin 2x2

OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND IMAGE SESSION

Located in the southern constellation of Grus we found a multi arm, face on, fairly large but diffuse spiral galaxy. It has a diameter of 100.000 light years makes it similar to our Milky Way. The object present a prominent central bar and well defined arms which is the reason it is called as a "grand design gañlaxy". The reddish color of the central core indicate an older population of stars while the bright blue of the arms show clusters and young stars along with the presence of HII regions.

NGC 7424 is considered as a "field galaxy" which means that is not gravitationally bound to any group. On December 2001 Australian amateur astronomer Robert Evans discovered SN 2001ig: a rare of supernova on the outer edge of the galaxy which was three times fainter than the whole galaxy.