NGC 45

SPIRAL GALAXY IN CETUS 

 (Image Centred at ra 00h:14m / dec -23:11)

CLICK THE IMAGE FOR A HIGHER RESOLUTION VIEW

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

DATA

Type: Spiral Galaxy 

Apparent Magnitude: 10.4

Apparent diameter: 7.41 X 5.13 arc minutes

Distance: 22.8 Million light years (or 7 Mpc) (*)

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

Discovered by John Hershel in 1835, NGC 45 is was though to be part of the Sculptor group. However its relative velocity was very different from the rest of the gang which seems to indicate it was far behind. From the classics galaxies known, NGC 45 is one of the lowest surface brightness with 14.8 magnitudes per arc seconds^2. Because of the mentioned some foreground and far away galaxies can be seen through the arms structure.

The bright star at the right close the galaxy are in fact two stars separated by less of one arc second and it was not able to be resolved separately by the used resolution. One is catalogued as SAO 166132 and shines at magnitude 6.86, and the other GSC 6413-0626 at magnitude 6.53. Visual reports indicates that the brightness of these stara interferes with the viewing of NGC 45's  faint structure.   

(*) Source: Simbad