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NGC891 · NGC 891

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NGC 891
Credit Torsten Boeker, Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) , and NASA · Public domain
Chinese nameNGC 891
TypeGalaxy
ConstellationAnd
RA02h23m
Dec+42°
Apparent magnitude9.9ᵐ
HemisphereNorthern
Best seasonAutumn
DifficultyHard
Focal length长焦 1000mm+

About

NGC 891 lies about 30 million light-years away in Andromeda, a nearly perfectly edge-on spiral split by a thick dark dust lane. Deep exposures reveal dust filaments rising vertically from the disk, lofted thousands of light-years high by outflows driven by intense star formation. Similar in size and structure to the Milky Way, it is often treated as a model for how our own galaxy looks edge-on. At magnitude 10 its surface brightness is modest but its form is elegant. Deep long-focal-length imaging makes it a classic edge-on-galaxy challenge target.