NGC 7814 – Peg
NGC 7814 , the “little Sombrero”
Some of the funniest aspects as astronomy is that sometimes the most spectacular objects out there have a special nickname. To say it better, sometimes a nickname contributes to the fame of a given object, if it is really appropriate. To the point that a successful nickname is recycled for another object, in case adding an adjective. However, this does not warrant any notoriety, for the minor one.
This is the case for NGC 7814, a wonderful spiral, edge on galaxy in Pegasus, nicknamed “the little Sombrero”, as opposed to the the venerable “Sombrero”, Messier 104. NGC 7814 is a quite neglected object, despite it is so beautiful and unusual, because of its narrow, dark dust band crossing its nucleus. Such a galaxy is around 40 millions of light years from us. All around, many faint galaxies are making the sight even more spectacular.
The image above is the average of six, 300-seconds exposures, remotely collected with the PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E robotic unit part of the Virtual Telescope Project. All the images were unguided.
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