Observers Challenge link:  october-2016-observers-challenge-ngc-7479

NGC 7479 – Galaxy in Pegasus
Date: October 2016
Seeing: Fair Transparency: Poor
NELM: ~4.9 – 5.0
Telescope: 10-inch reflector
Sketch magnification: 114x
Eyepiece: 20 mm + 2.0 Barlow

Description: Very faint, elongated with a brightening and greater concentration in the central region, however, subtle. A mag. 13 star on the north tip in the halo, which required averted vision. A bright mag. 10 star about 5 arc minutes south of the southern tip. With extreme difficulty and using averted vision, I could see the southern tip curving toward the SW. This feature was fleeting and could not hold constantly.

Roger Ivester

NGC7479
LVAS
James R Dire
NGC 7479 is a nearly face-on barred (SBc) spiral galaxy in the constellation Pegasus. It was discovered by William Herschel in the year 1784. The galaxy is approximately 3 degrees due south or the star Markab. The galaxy has visual magnitude 11 and is 3.6 by 2.7 arc minutes in size. Distance estimates place the galaxy 105 million light years away!

The galaxy has a very bright core and bright long bar structure. One major spiral arm starts at each end of the bar and appear to extend 180 degrees around the galaxy. Visually, in most amateur telescopes the central budge and bar structure are all that is seen as they are much brighter than the spiral arms.

NGC 7479 is classified as a Seyfert galaxy due to extensive starburst activity in the core and spiral arms. Radio studies indicate the galaxy may have recently (when the light left the galaxy) undergone a galactic merger.

I imaged NGC7479 a month ago with a 10-inch f/6.9 Newtonian and an SBIG ST-2000XCM CCD camera. The exposure was 210 minutes. The clumps visible in the spiral arms are the regions of starburst activity.  JD

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