NGC 7331


30 minutes exposure, Kodak Elitechrome 400 slide film. 5" f/5 refractor at prime focus.

NGC 7331 is a well known spiral galaxy in Pegasus. It is easily visible in an 8" telescope as a bright, elongated patch of light. There are numerous faint galaxies in the region, many of which are visible in a 12" telescope under dark skies. NGC 7331 and its close companions are sometimes known as the "Deer Lick Group".

About 30 arc minutes lies one of the more interesting and famous galaxy groups, Hickson 92, more commonly known as Stephen's Quintet. This is a group of 5 galaxies that appear to be interacting, yet one has a very different red-shift to the rest. The group is visible in the above photograph as a group of small smudges of light to the lower right of NGC 7331, and indicated by the yellow circle in the image below. This view is very close to the view obtained with an 8" telescope in dark skies.