Easy galaxy in Pegasus.

[cotterless45]

Spotted this at 6 this evening: NGC7331.

Head up from Matar to make the same angle and distance from Scheat.At x40 you'll find a reversed question mark with the galaxy to the rhs (Dob).

It's a very bright core and a long halo, even up to x120 it gave good detail from my bright light polluted garden.

The galaxy is part of the hectic Stephan's Quintet, for those with darker skies, worth investigating,

Nick.

[rory]

thanks for the pointer nick, shall find this one out, not had much luck with galaxies of late. just cant bag ngc 891 in andromeda,although to be fair the skies arn't favourable usually when i attempt .

clear wotsits..

[RikM]

NGC7331 is a great target

[acey]

A very fine galaxy, one of those objects that could easily have made it onto the Messier list but happened to get overlooked. It's in most "best non-Messier" lists, e.g. Caldwell and Herschel 400.

It's not part of Stephan's Quintet - actually it's part of another group (sometimes called the Deer Lick Group), along with four other NGC galaxies that are much smaller and fainter. I've seen them all with a 12" at a dark site.

Stephan's Quintet is not far off, and again all members are visible with a 12" (I nearly managed them all with an 8"), though this group is much smaller than the NGC 7331 group and needs high power.

[andrew63]

Something else to look out for - thanks. The area looks impressive in this non back garden image!

APOD: 2011 August 12 - NGC 7331 and Beyond

andrew

[Mike73]

I added this to my list of objects to view a couple days ago.

Does it show much detail under dark skies? Kinda reminds me of a small scale Andromeda galaxy looking at Andrews link.

[acey]

Small-scale Andromeda is a good description, or a smaller M81. Under a dark sky it's clear that it's a spiral galaxy (bright central bulge within a fainter surrounding halo), though I don't recall having seen the dust lane. But it's bright and conspicuous, on a par with Messier galaxies.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

A very fine galaxy, one of those objects that could easily have made it onto the Messier list but happened to get overlooked. It's in most "best non-Messier" lists, e.g. Caldwell and Herschel 400.

It's not part of Stephan's Quintet - actually it's part of another group (sometimes called the Deer Lick Group), along with four other NGC galaxies that are much smaller and fainter. I've seen them all with a 12" at a dark site.

Stephan's Quintet is not far off, and again all members are visible with a 12" (I nearly managed them all with an 8"), though this group is much smaller than the NGC 7331 group and needs high power.

Interesting. I have not tried Stephan's Quintet before, as I assumed they were all beyond my C8. I will give them a bash once the weather changes (for the better for preference).

[Double Kick Drum]

NGC 7331 is fairly easy target even for modest scopes and is of reasonable surface brightness, so isn't washed out too easily. The most I have ever magnified it is about 80 times, however.

[RikM]

I haven't managed to see Stephan's Quintet with my 10", even on the best nights at home

[acey]

An 8" will certainly show at least some of Stephan's Quintet at a dark site, the hard part is splitting the group into its component galaxies, and seeing all five. Two members are very close and one is quite a lot fainter than the rest.

The 7331 group members were first discovered with the 72" Leviathan if I remember correctly, though a 12" is certainly sufficient and less aperture may do it.

7331 is, I think, of comparable surface brightness to most spirals of its class, but it's relatively large on the sky compared to most, and this is what makes it an easier target: its integrated magnitude is high and you don't need great magnification to bring it into visibility. You just want a dark enough sky.

[bish]

NGC7331 is a good one. I've just managed 4 of Stephan's Quintet with a 10" from a very dark site.

[rory]

i managed it earlier tonight , but no where near dark enough to get detail other than a faint fuzzy.

[tingting44]

nice, i will have to make an effort to look this one out next time im out but to date any DSO's ive mainly seen or imaged have only been fuzzy's it does not help that i have got the brightest street lamp in the uk right over head in my garden