Observation by Peter Hannah: M77 & NGC1055

Uploaded by

Peter Hannah

Observer

Peter Hannah

Observed

2025 Aug 06 - 15:40

Uploaded

2025 Aug 06 - 15:52

Objects

M77
NGC1055
NGC1072

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Constellation

Cetus

Field centre

RA: 02^h42^m
Dec: +00°14'
Position angle: +89°16'

Field size

0°42' × 0°44'

Equipment

Planewave CDK 14 Corrected Dall-Kirkham
10Micron GM2000 mount
Astrodon LRGB filters
FLI Proline P9000 CCD camera

Exposure

LRGB 12 hrs each

Location

Oria, Spain

Target name

M77 & NGC1055

Title

M77 & NGC1055

About this image

M77 (NGC1068) is the face-on spiral at upper left, while NGC1055 is at lower right. The galaxies are found in the constellation Cetus. North is to the right in this image.

M77 is a Seyfert galaxy, whose extremely bright central region is due to an accretion disk of matter falling towards a supermassive black hole at its centre. The energy source is the same as that of quasars, the difference being that, unlike with a quasar, we can see the host galaxy’s surrounding structure in Seyferts. M77 was the first Seyfert galaxy to be so categorized. The bright core makes for a processing challenge to bring out the fainter spiral arms.

NGC1055 is an edge-on spiral with a prominent dust lane. It is a member of the same group that includes M77. They lie about 50 million light years away.

The small galaxy near the top of the image is NGC1072, another spiral galaxy at mag 14.27, an estimated 370 million ly away.

There are a few other small distant galaxies visible: to upper left of NGC1055 is PGC 1164535 at mag 16.56, 310 million ly away; and at bottom centre is PGC 135658, another spiral at mag 17.26, 370 million ly distant.

Files associated with this observation

M77 LRGB 2025.jpg (7.8 MB)

Like this image

Callum Potter, Dominic Ford, Jeremy Shears, Simon Paul Davis, Tim Haymes, Manolo_Rodriguez

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