M74 · Phantom Galaxy

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Credit No machine-readable author provided. Med assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY 2.5

Chinese name	幻影星系
Type	Galaxy
Constellation	Psc
RA	01h37m
Dec	+16°
Apparent magnitude	9.4ᵐ
Hemisphere	Both hemispheres
Best season	Autumn
Difficulty	Hard
Focal length	长焦 1000mm+

About

The Phantom Galaxy lies about 32 million light-years away in Pisces, a textbook grand-design spiral. Two symmetric, well-defined arms sweep gracefully from the core, dotted with pink H II regions and blue young clusters. Containing roughly 100 billion stars, it is nearly perfectly face-on and tidily symmetric. Its very low surface brightness makes it one of the hardest Messier objects to see visually, demanding very dark skies and long exposures. A classic Hubble and JWST imaging target, the latter's infrared view revealed a delicate filamentary dust skeleton in the arms.