Galaxy of the Month Archive 2025

In this series of articles we draw your attention to galaxies particularly worthly of an observer's time.

• NGC 1042 in Cetus

  October 2025 - Galaxy of the Month

  NGC 1042 is part of a small group of galaxies called the NGC 1052 group which includes the galaxies NGC 1052 and NGC 1035.

  Two of the galaxies, NGC 1035 and NGC 1052, were discovered by William Herschel in 1785, whilst the fainter face on spiral NGC 1042 was discovered by Lewis Swift in 1885 using a 16” refractor. Swift also discovered the much fainter galaxy in the same field known as NGC 1047. There are two very much fainter galaxies in the same field in NGC 1048 and NGC 1048A, also known as VV 1040, also found by Swift. There is some confusion over which galaxies Swift actually found as his positions are not great but for simplicity this is the way they are numbered.

  NGC 1047 may be part of the NGC 1052 group but NGC 1049 is much further away. The group lies at about 63 million light-years from the earth and the galaxies have interacted in the past.

  NGC 1052 has an AGN of the LINER type with a starburst region in its nucleus along with a couple of small jets. It also hosts a supermassive black hole at its centre. NGC 1052 is classified as a triaxial ellipsoid galaxy of type E4. NGC 1052 also made the news as it appears to be associated with a small galaxy catalogued as NGC 1052-DF2 which has almost no dark matter associated with it.

  NGC 1042 on the other hand is a face on spiral galaxy. Its classification has been a source of confusion with some sources suggesting it is a barred spiral of SAB(rs)cd form whilst others suggesting it is an unbarred spiral galaxy. The nucleus which is very small also hosts a black hole at its centre. It is probably interacting with the smaller galaxy NGC 1035 at this time. NGC 1035 is thought to be an Sc type galaxy seen almost edge on. Images from the GALEX satellite in the UV show a lot of star formation activity in both NGC 1042 and NGC 1035, which would follow if they are interacting.

  These three galaxies are also part of the group LGG 71 which lists 14 galaxies in it. There is a nice Hubble image of NGC 1042 on Wikipedia.

  All the galaxies are quite close together and will fit in a medium power field using a modern hyperwide field eyepiece at say 159x. NGC 1052 makes it into the Astronomical League’s Herschel 400 list and the pair make it into the Astronomical League’s Two in a View list. Steve Gottlieb suggests that all the galaxies can be seen, albeit it faintly, with a 17.5” telescope and the brighter ones with a 13.1”. Interestingly The Night Sky Observer's Guide Vol. 1 suggests that all these galaxies are visible with a 8-10” scope. I find that a little hard to believe but then these observations are probably from Arizona. They make no mention of NGC 1047 being visible.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

  If you'd like to try out the Clear Skies Observing Guides (CSOG), you can download observing guide for the current Galaxy of the Month without the need to register. CSOG are not associated with the Webb Deep-Sky Society but the work of Victor van Wulfen.

• NGC 274 in Cetus

  September 2025 - Galaxy of the Month

  As we move into autumnal skies my challenge for September is the galaxy trio NGC, 273, NGC 274 and NGC 275 in Cetus.

  The group has an interesting discovery history with NGC 274 and 273 being discovered by William Herschel in September 1785 and William’s son John discovering the close companion to NGC 274, later numbered as NGC 275, in 1828. The NGC 274/275 pair was later catalogued as Arp 140 in Halton Arp’s catalogue of Peculiar galaxies. Arp classified the NGC 274/275 pair under material emanating from elliptical galaxies. The pair had however already made Vorontsov-Velyaminov’s interacting galaxy catalogue as VV 81. For those that like odd designations the pair is also known as Holmberg 26. The NGC 274/275 pair is also included in the galaxy group LGG 15 along with NGC 298 and NGC 337, although not NGC 273.

  Here NGC 274 is actually a lenticular or S0 galaxy. NGC 275 is a spiral galaxy that appears to be very heavily distorted from the encounter and is furiously forming stars and it is dominated by massive star forming regions. Radio observations of the pair show tidal tails coming from both galaxies. In 2018 a Type II supernova was seen in the nuclear region of NGC 274.

  There appears to be some debate as to the distance to the NGC 274/275 pair with some sources suggesting it is around 65 million light-years and others pushing it out to 81 million light-years. Based on redshift values NGC 273 will be over twice as far away as NGC 274 so it is not associated with the other two.

  Perhaps surprisingly there do not appear to be a lot of papers on this pair. There is a fine Hubble image of the pair. NGC 273 is also a lenticular S0 galaxy seen edge on. Interestingly lenticular galaxies are expected to form in galaxy clusters from RAM pressure stripping but here there is no compact galaxy cluster here.

  The group does not make any of the first two Astronomical League Herschel project lists, although it is in the Herschel 3 listing. Splitting the NGC 274/275 pair may not be that easy given that William Herschel did not manage it. It is suggested in the The Night Sky Observer's Guide that probably at least a 12/14 inch telescope may be required to do this. Larger telescopes should find it easier to split. There was a report of the Arp pair in the OOTW forum for 2017, although interestingly there are no observations of NGC 273. NGC 273 plus NGC 274/275 made it into Alvin Huey’s Galaxy Trio guide.

  I suspect that medium to high power will be needed to split the NGC 274/275 pair. NGC 273 will also respond to high power and in fact you can use medium powers up to say 265x and still get all the galaxies in the triplet in the same FOV, especially using a modern hyperwide field (100 degree) eyepiece. Steve Gottlieb suggested that with his 17.5” telescope NGC 273 was fairly faint.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• NGC 6278 in Hercules

  August 2025 - Galaxy of the Month

  With darker skies coming back in August we can start to look for fainter galaxies again. My choice this month is the galaxy pair NGC 6278 and NGC 6277 (6276) in Hercules. NGC 6278 was discovered by William Herschel in 1784 and independently again by Stephan in 1871. William described it as very faint so it might be a challenge. NGC 6277 was discovered by Marth in 1871 so it is going to be a challenge.

  NGC 6278 is classified as a lenticular galaxy of type S0 lying perhaps 113 million light-years from us. Interestingly NGC 6277 is also classified as an S0 lenticular. NGC 6278, NGC 6277 along with UGC 10650 are contained in the poor galaxy group WBL 629, they are also included in the group LGG 409, both groups only containing these three galaxies.

  As is often the case with faint galaxies discovered in the heyday of visual observing there is some confusion over the NGC numbers in this group. William Herschel’s discovery, NGC 6278, is secure but both Marth and Stephan found two objects here and they were given the designations NGC 6276 and NGC 6277. There is really only one galaxy here. It is probable that the galaxy identified as NGC 6277 is really NGC 6276 and NGC 6277 is really a star. What fun. Harold Corwin has this discussion in his NGC notes. Due to this confusion you may find the smaller galaxy named as either NGC 6277 or 6726 depending on how the charting makers treat the historically corrected NGC.

  A deep imaging survey around NGC 6278 suggests that it is surrounded by 9 smaller satellite galaxies. If NGC 6278 is at the distances quoted then it is perhaps 82,000 light-years in diameter, so a little smaller than our Milky Way.

  Recent studies suggest that this small grouping is also part of the filaments of galaxies associated with the Virgo cluster. There maybe 13 or so different filaments here as extracted from galaxy surveys. These filaments maybe several megaparsecs long. The group is also suspected of being a fossil group where many mergers have taken place and the group is now just the remnants of what was there.

  The two NGC galaxies are fairly close together so they will fit in the same field of view in a high power eyepiece and this will probably be the best way to see them. The third member of the group, UGC 10650, is also close by in the same high power field as the other two but is probably too faint to be seen in any but the largest amateur telescopes. I note that these galaxies may well be challenging to see as Steve Gottlieb in his NGC notes describes them as faint in a 17.5” telescope.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• NGC 6207 in Hercules

  July 2025 - Galaxy of the Month

  My target this month is the bright galaxy NGC 6207 in Hercules. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1787 and is better known because of its location as it lies about half a degree NE of the globular cluster M13. It is thought to lie at about 30 million light-years from us.

  NGC 6207 is classified a SA(s)c spiral and if at the calculated distance is correct then it would be about 34,000 light-years across, so quite a small galaxy, about a third of the size of our Milky Way. There do seem to be a number of large blue star clusters in its spiral arms which suggests that there is ongoing star formation. NGC 6207 appears to be a fairly isolated galaxy however so it is not clear what is triggering the star formation episode. Deep images however suggest there may be five dwarf galaxies in the field and there could be interactions with those.

  There are suggestions that NGC 6207 is part of one of the filaments of galaxies associated with the Virgo cluster, although it lies well in the foreground of that cluster which lies at a distance of about 55 million light-years. It may also be part of the Draco cloud of galaxies.

  As seen in the Hubble Space Telescope images on Wikipedia, NGC 6207 shows well-defined spiral arms but interestingly there is not really a prominent nucleus. There is a star not far from the nucleus but this is part of our galaxy. NGC 6207 was also host to SN 2004A which was suspected to be a Type IIP event, i.e. a core collapse supernova.

  The skies of July as seen from the northern climes of the UK are still bright so seeing any galaxies is a challenge but if this one is too easy for you then try for the much more challenging galaxy IC 4617 which lies half way between NGC 6207 and M13.

  NGC 6207 is relatively small so it is best seen using medium to high power eyepieces. It is bright enough to be seen with small telescopes in the 20cm range from very dark sites even as small as 130mm. The Webb Deep-Sky Society Observer's Handbook Volume 4 has observations of NGC 6207 with instruments ranging in size from 15cm to 40cm and suggests that in the smaller instruments it appears as a grey uniform streak but some subtle details appear at 40cm. The galaxy is a part of many observing lists including the Astronomical League's H400 list of the 400 best objects discovered by William Herschel. It also features in Stephen O’Meara’s book The Secret Deep.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• NGC 6070 in Serpens Caput

  June 2025 - Galaxy of the Month

  Our galaxy for this month is the near face on spiral galaxy NGC 6070 in Serpens Caput.

  Discovered by William Herschel in 1786 it has the SA(s)cd classification and along with the fainter galaxies PGC 57350 and PGC 1175364 it forms a trio. NGC 6070 is also part of the galaxy group LGG 404 along with UGC 10288 and 10294. If LGG 404 is a true group then the galaxies are spread quite a way apart on the sky. The situation gets confusing but the three galaxies with NGC 6070 are also known as Holm 729.

  NGC 6070 is thought to be about 92 million light-years away and if at that distance would have a diameter of about 105,000 light-years. It was one of the first light images for the SDSS. NGC 6070 itself is at magnitude 11.8 but the two companions are around 14.4 or so and will be a challenge for larger telescopes.

  The three galaxies are not a physical system with the two PGC galaxies probably being about 580 million light-years away and part of another cluster. If they are this far out then they are probably quite large as well. PGC 57350 is also a double galaxy system, probably undergoing a merger.

  The images in the UV from the GALEX satellite show that there is a lot of star formation going on in NGC 6070 and a couple of the brighter giant HII regions in the NE of the galaxy maybe visible and are in fact covered in Alvin Huey’s latest guide on Observing Extragalactic Objects Within Host Galaxies. It is worth noting that the two small companions are sometimes called NGC 6070B and C, although sources frequently change which galaxy is which.

  For those that follow the Deep Sky Forum, NGC 6070 was included in both 2019 and 2022. NGC 6070 is also included in the Astronomical League's Herschel II list.

  As the galaxy is close to face on it is likely that in most telescopes only the bright core may be seen. The spiral arms maybe seen with larger telescopes from dark sites. The group is very tight and will fit in the field of a high-power eyepiece and this may be the best way to see them, in particular to pick out the faint companions.

  The group is also covered in Alvin Huey’s Galaxy Trios guide. The The Night Sky Observer's Guide Vol. 2 suggests that a 30—35cm scope will show the core and 40—45cm will show the core surrounded by a haze. Steve Gottlieb in his complete collection of NGC observations at Adventures in Deep Space suggests that a 24” telescope maybe required to see the companions, certainly to split the double pair whilst using a 48” will show them well.

  It is likely that the 7^th magnitude star nearby will impact on observations of the group. The star is a red star catalogued as Espin-Birmingham 449.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• NGC 4278 in Coma Berenices

  May 2025 - Galaxy of the Month

  As the brightening skies of May approach, I have chosen for the galaxy of the month the trio of galaxies in Coma Berenices, NGC 4278, NGC 4283 and NGC 4286. All three of these galaxies were discovered by William Herschel in 1785.

  NGC 4278 is the brightest of the trio and is an elliptical galaxy classified as E1-2. It contains an AGN of the LINER type. A small pair of weak radio jets have been found in the galaxy as well as it having a strong and variable UV source at its centre. This flaring variability also extends to the X-Ray output from the galaxy. The radio jets also appear to be associated with high energy gamma ray emission from the galaxy. Images with the Hubble space telescope also show a lot of dust features near the nucleus which is unusual for an elliptical galaxy. The galaxy is also surrounded by a larger number of globular clusters than expected. NGC 4278 is thought to be about 55 million light-years away.

  NGC 4283 is also an elliptical galaxy classified as E0. NGC 4286 is probably a lenticular galaxy, but has also been classified as a dwarf galaxy, and it does show a lot of emission in the UV which suggests a lot of star formation going on.

  In fact, given the distance all the galaxies here are quite small with the largest, NGC 4278, probably only about 65,000 light-years across, so about half the size of our Milky Way. The group are probably physically associated and have the designation 399 in the WBL catalogue. The group are suspected to be part of one of the filaments associated with Virgo cluster.

  It is also suggested that NGC 4278 is part of a galaxy group associated with NGC 4274, although there is some debate on that. It is also part of the Coma I group of the Virgo cluster. NGC 4274 lies about 20’ to the north of NGC 4278.

  NGC 4278 is a part of the Astronomical League's H400 list and at around 11^th magnitude should be visible in quite small telescopes. NGC 4283 is much fainter at around 13^th magnitude so should be more of a challenge for larger telescopes. NGC 4286 is fainter still at around 14^th magnitude so will require a much larger telescope to find unless you have access to very dark skies.

  It does help that the brighter two galaxies are ellipticals with bright cores so should be easy to spot. NGC 4286 is an edge on galaxy so it will be harder to see. The group is however quite tight and will fit in the same field of view using a modern hyperwide field eyepiece at high power, which may be the best way to catch NGC 4286. The Night Sky Observer's Guide Vol 2 suggests that in a 35cm telescope NGC 4286 is a difficult faint smudge. The other two should be visible in 25cm telescopes. The galaxy also makes The Cambridge Photographic Atlas of Galaxies.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• NGC 5223 in Canes Venatici

  April 2025 - Galaxy of the Month

  April skies give us the last chance to see fainter galaxies before the end of astronomical dark in early May. Mark Stuart suggested to me that the trio of galaxies in Canes Venatici around NGC 5223 might make an interesting GOM. All three of the galaxies, NGC 5223, NGC 5228 and NGC 5233 were discovered by William Herschel in 1785.

  It is suggested that NGC 5223 may contain an AGN due to the fact that it contains a bright X-Ray source at its centre. It is classified as an elliptical galaxy, possibly E2. NGC 5228 is suggested to be a lenticular galaxy of type S0 and also a radio source. NGC 5233 is a spiral. There is an ESO image which suggests this is a blue dwarf galaxy with a large star cluster, but I am not sure if they have the right designation associated with this observation. There certainly does not appear to be any confusion in the NGC as to its identification. NGC 5233 is also suggested to have an AGN of the LINER type.

  It is unclear whether this is a physical group as the distances to them are either not defined or widely different, although the redshift based distances are similar so they could be a physical group. The whole field is also littered with other much fainter galaxies. The group has not been catalogued in either the LGG or WBL catalogues which suggests either it was too faint for them or it is not a true group.

  Unfortunately, there is not much other information on the galaxies available so I apologise for the somewhat shorter GOM this month. All the galaxies appear to be somewhat smaller than our Milky Way galaxy.

  The galaxies are fairly faint so the group is going to be challenging to see. The group is quite tight and all three galaxies will fit in the same field of view with a modern hyperwide (100 degree) high power eyepiece. The group does not make it into either Miles Paul’s Atlas of Galaxy Trios (available for free from our website) or Alvin Huey’s Galaxy Trios and Triple Systems guide (available for free from Alvin's website).

  William Herschel discovered the group with his 18.7” speculum metal mirror reflector, although he described all three of the galaxies as very faint, it probably needs at least a 40-45cm telescope to see the main components. It would be interesting to see what size telescope is needed to see the other galaxies in the group. Perhaps as expected there are no observations of the group in any of the standard references. Steve Gottlieb described them all as faint with his 17.5” Dobsonian. It would be interesting to know what size telescope is needed to see the small edge-on UGC 8547 as I note that Steve Gottlieb did not include it in his UGC notes.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• NGC 3044 in Sextans

  March 2025 - Galaxy of the Month

  For this month’s GOM I have chosen NGC 3044 in Sextans. NGC 3044 is a nice edge on spiral galaxy, close to the superthin variety. First discovered by William Herschel in December 1784 it lies at an estimated distance of about 67 million light-years from us.

  Given that distance to the galaxy this would make NGC 3044 about 91,000 light-years across, slightly smaller than our own Milky Way at 100,000 light-years. It appears relatively isolated in space which is of interest as the lop-sided nature of the galaxy suggests that it may have had a recent interaction with another galaxy. This may also explain the cloud of ionised gas which extends about 1 kpc above the centre. NGC 3044 is classified as an SBc spiral lying at an angle of perhaps 85 degrees from the plane of the sky.

  It has been suggested that it is part of the widely spaced Leo Cloud of galaxies. There are also suggestions that it is a part of the extended filaments of galaxies associated with the Virgo cluster.

  NGC 3044 has hosted one type II supernova in SN 1983E. Images of the galaxy suggest that its colours are fairly blue suggesting a lot of recent star formation. The disk also shows signs of knots which could represent large star clusters. This activity is backed up by its brightness and structure as seen in UV images from the GALEX satellite which suggests strong star forming activity through the galaxy. Whether this is the result of a merger, perhaps half a billion years or so ago, is not clear but there are no companions close enough to it to have disturbed it. Radio observations also show that the HI cloud surrounding NGC 3044 is lopsided and warped. There are also high latitude HI features, some of which appear to be expanding shells. Interestingly SIMBAD suggests that it is an AGN candidate.

  NGC 3044 makes the Herschel 3 list as well as most lists of flat galaxies including that from the Astronomical League. Observations from the The Night Sky Observer's Guide Vol. 2 suggest that telescopes in the 40-45cm class should show structure in the plane of the galaxy in terms of discrete knots. The galaxy should be visible in say 25cm but will not show much detail. Luginbuhl and Skiff (L&S) suggest that it is visible as a faint spindle in 25cm but 30cm shows some structure. Note however these observations were made from altitude in dark skies. It is also in Alvin Huey’s Flat Galaxies guide which can be downloaded for free from his website.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• NGC 2648 in Cancer

  February 2025 - Galaxy of the Month

  Our object this month is the galaxy NGC 2648, also known as Arp 89, in Cancer. NGC 2648 was first discovered by William Herschel in 1784 and is paired with the galaxy PGC 24469, also known as MCG +02-22-006, which is a part of Arp 89. NGC 2468 is one of the brighter galaxies in Cancer, which however is not saying much! R.J. Mitchell observing with the 72” at Birr did actually find PGC 24469 in 1857 but it was not included in the final copy of Lord Rosse’s monograph and hence did not make it into the NGC. The full story can be found on Harold Corwin's website.

  NGC 2468 and PGC 24469 are physically interacting. NGC 2648 is thought to be a retired galaxy, one in which star formation has ceased. The pair lie at about 112 million light-years from us. Arp classified it in his group Spiral galaxy with large high surface brightness companion on arm. If they are at this distance then the pair would be about 150,000 light-years across.

  Both NGC 2648 and PGC 24469 shows signs of tidal interactions with one of the spiral arms of NGC 2468 being pulled towards its companion and tidal tails coming out of PGC 24469. PGC 24469 is also suggested to be a WR (Wolf-Rayet) galaxy which suggests a lot of star formation going on as it contains a lot of short lived massive Wolf-Rayet stars. The star formation could have been triggered by the interaction with NGC 2648. NGC 2648 although classified as a spiral shows no signs of star formation going on and its colours are rather yellow, not dissimilar to a lenticular however the pair are quite isolated and there is no nearby cluster for it to have formed in the usual way as a lenticular. Interestingly despite it appearing in Arp’s catalogue it did not make it into the original VV catalogue of interacting galaxies but was added in the extended version as VV 1239.

  Steve Gottleib did not note the faint companion PGC 24469 when observing with his 17.5” but did see it as faint with the 24”. Victor van Wulfen suggested he saw both with his 14” in mountain skies. Perhaps surprisingly as an Arp object it does not appear in the The Night Sky Observer's Guide. Alvin Huey in his Arp Observing guide says that both galaxies were clearly seen at high power in his 22”.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• NGC 1407 in Eridanus

  January 2025 - Galaxy of the Month

  This month’s challenge is the group of galaxies around NGC 1407 in Eridanus. Although the two main galaxies are relatively bright in themselves their low culminating altitude, even from the southern UK, makes them challenging to find. NGC 1407, NGC 1400 and NGC 1393 were discovered by William Herschel in 1785/86. John Herschel added NGC 1383 in 1835, although this may have been from his South African sojourn.

  These galaxies form a clump within the much larger Eridanus cluster, sometimes known as the Eridanus A group. This cluster has maybe 200 members and lies perhaps 75 million light-years away (23 Mpc). Somewhat confusingly there is also the Eridanus Group which refers to this area as well. The cluster is thought to be just condensing out of the Hubble flow and is related to the nearby Fornax cluster and is sometimes known as Fornax II. The whole lot is part of the Eridanus-Fornax-Dorado filament, a structure perhaps 10 Mpc in length.

  NGC 1407 is classed as an E0 elliptical galaxy, practically circular as we view it and NGC 1400 is an SB0, a pretty round lenticular, although recent measurements suggest it may in fact be an E1 galaxy. The other galaxies in the field are mostly spirals. In the Eridanus cluster as a whole some 30% of the galaxies are elliptical or lenticular and the rest spirals and irregulars.

  The concentration of galaxies around NGC 1407 is such that with a medium power eyepiece of say 200x and a medium to large telescope you may get four or five NGC galaxies in the same field. The fainter ones will be more of a challenge than the bright ones having been found with large telescopes towards the end of the 19th century by Marth and Leavenworth.

  NGC 1407 itself is unusual in that it contains some relatively young stars which suggests that it has undergone a recent star formation episode. It has also undergone several radio outbursts and as expected contains a supermassive black hole.

  The NGC 1407 group also shows some of the characteristics of a fossil group and contains many dwarf galaxies. Fossil galaxy groups are found when many of the more massive galaxies have merged into the central brightest galaxy, here NGC 1407, and leave many dwarf galaxies. NGC 1400 itself is odd in that it displays an anomalous velocity compared to the rest of the group but it does appear to be part of the group and may be making its first approach, along with its attendant galaxies. The interstellar medium in it has probably been stripped out by RAM pressure stripping by the IGM in the cluster. It is likely, although by no means certain, that NGC 1400 and 1407 are interacting.

  The relationship of the galaxies in the Eridanus and Fornax clusters can be seen on the Atlas of the Universe website. NGC 1400 and 1407 appear in Steven O’Meara’s Secret Deep project as numbers 12 and 13 and in the Herschel 400 list. It is perhaps important to note that O’Mearas book was written some time ago and some of the information regarding the astrophysics is now out of date.

  As these galaxies do not rise very high to observe them find a site with a good dark southern horizon and try and observe them on the meridian. From lower latitudes the main galaxies should be visible in say 15cm but I suspect from the Uk maybe 22cm will be needed to see them. The The Night Sky Observer's Guide (NSOG) Volume 1 suggests that 20-25cm would be useful to see NGC 1400 and 1407 although 30-35cm would give better views. There is also a downloadable guide to the Eridanus group on the Clear Skies website.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director