C44
Galaxy in Pegasus
About
NGC 7479, the Superman Galaxy, is a barred spiral in Pegasus about 105 million light-years away. William Herschel found it in 1784, and it is Caldwell 44. Its nucleus is Seyfert/LINER, with starbursts along the bar, and radio data show a jet bending against its optical arms, probably left by a minor merger.
Imaging tips
- Only about 4′ across, so it is too small to frame: use a long focal length and a fine pixel scale.
- The centre is far brighter than the arms, so the core is easy to overexpose; stretch it separately from the faint outer structure.
- About 22 mag/arcsec², so plan many hours of broadband data: published LRGB images of it total about 21 and 24 hours.
- Faint nebulous detail in the arms and core can be lifted from deep colour data; one published image blended a standard and a heavily sharpened version.
- Best in August and September; it peaks near 52° altitude from 50°N.
Facts
- Size
- 3.7′ × 2.7′
- Magnitude
- 11.1
- Coordinates
- RA 23h 4.9m, Dec +12° 19′
- Framing, APS-C
- longer than 4000 mm
- Framing, full frame
- longer than 4000 mm
- Best months
- Aug, Sep
- Peak altitude
- 52° from 50°N, 67° from 35°N