Dwarf Galaxy IC 1613 in Cetus

[AndyG]

IC 1613 is an irregular dwarf galaxy in Cetus and a member of the Local Group of galaxies. The bright star at the left is HD 6375, which, at mag ~ 6.2 would be just barely visible to the naked eye in dark skies.

[AstroGeek]

Cool shot, Andy. I think I see a not-so-dwarf galaxy way in the distance at the top of the dwarf galaxy.

Steve

P.S. Further review shows a few more distant galaxies. Nice!!

[Stargrrl]

Hi Andy, very neat. Is it known what structure this galaxy has? It looks kind of diffuse -- or is that just our viewing angle from Earth?

[AndyG]

Is it known what structure this galaxy has? It looks kind of diffuse -- or is that just our viewing angle from Earth?

IC 1613 is indeed quite diffuse with only 100's of millions of stars (vs our Milky Way's ~200 billion.) It is also relatively close, about 2.4M ly, a little closer than M33. On this diagram of the Local Group it's in the 9 o'clock position relative to the Milky Way.

One theory is that dwarf galaxies form from the tidal streams resulting from close gravitational interactions between galaxies, in this case Andromeda and Milky Way.

[NGC7000]

That is spectacular, Andy. Another DSO I had no idea existed until you brought it to us with 8 nights of imaging no less!

And I see you are using your own acquisition software. It's just mind boggling.

Tom

[Apollo XX]

Andy - very interesting and excellent image! Do you happen to know how observable this object is visually? At mag 9.9 it seems like it might be able to be seen under dark skies, but it's probably a very diffuse spread of light.

[Stargrrl]

Thank you for the links - science rocks

[Paul D]

Like Steve said, that big smudge in the middle of the picture is getting in the way of all those fine small galaxies in the back ground. Great image Andy..

[AndyG]

Do you happen to know how observable this object is visually? At mag 9.9 it seems like it might be able to be seen under dark skies, but it's probably a very diffuse spread of light.

Good question. I think it would be a good challenge. For comparison, Barnard's Galaxy in SGR is similar in apparent size and a bit brighter (mag 9.3). I tried and failed to observe Barnard's galaxy at Stellafane this year, but I was not very persistent in trying to find it. Barnard reportedly discovered it with a 6-in refractor!