NGC 247 – Needle’s Eye Galaxy

Field of Galactic Gems!

I don’t know what else to say other than this field of galactic gems puts a smile on my face. It reminds me of when I visited the crown jewels in London.  Think about how many real gems are in this portrait!

 Explanation from APOD: About 70,000 light-years across, NGC 247 is a spiral galaxy smaller than our Milky Way. Measured to be only 11 million light-years distant it is nearby though. Tilted nearly edge-on as seen from our perspective, it dominates this telescopic field of view toward the southern constellation Cetus. The pronounced dark void on the bottom side of the galaxy's disk recalls for some its popular name, the Needle's Eye galaxy. Many background galaxies are visible in this sharp galaxy portrait, including the remarkable string of four galaxies just below and right of NGC 247 known as Burbidge's Chain. Burbidge's Chain galaxies are about 300 million light-years distant. The deep image even reveals that  two of the galaxies in the chain are apparently interacting, joined by a faint bridge of material. NGC 247 itself is part of the Sculptor Group of galaxies along with the shiny spiral NGC 253.

Image Processing and Calibration: Mark Hanson

24" Planewave CDK f6.5 and L600 Mount, Camera SBIG 16803 Location: SWOS, El Sauce Chile

Data Collection: Hanson, Mazlin, Parker, Forman 2023

Enjoy, Mark

Also the 3rd Image is from SSRO from 16”RCOS F11