Barn­ard’s Galaxy (NGC 6822, Cald­well 57)

NGC 6822 in Sagit­tari­us is argu­ably the most cel­eb­rated and import­ant deep-sky dis­cov­ery made by Edward Emer­son Barn­ard in 1884. This island of stars with an appar­ent dia­met­er of 15 arc min lies about 1.5 mil­lion light-years away and is a mem­ber of the Loc­al Group like the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and the Pin­wheel Galaxy (M33).

Like the nearby Large Magel­lan­ic Cloud, NGC 6822 seems to be without sym­metry and is clas­si­fied as an irreg­u­lar. At one end of a prom­in­ent bar a few clouds of glow­ing gas can be seen; at the oth­er, bright blu­ish stars are scattered out into what appears to be the first signs of a strag­gling spir­al arm.

[descrip­tion from O’Meara and Aus­trali­an Astro­nom­ic­al Observatory]

Details

Tele­scope:
RCOS 20″ f/8.5
Mount:
Para­mount ME
Cam­era:
Apo­gee U16M
Fil­ters:
Astro­don Gen2
Expos­ure:
HaLRGB 320:1260:200:220:260 min.
Loc­a­tion:
Sierra Remote, California
Author:
© Mar­tin Ruster­holz, Astrophotographer

Find­er Chart Barn­ard’s Galaxy (NGC 6822, Cald­well 57)

NGC 6822 Galaxy Sky Chart Astrophotography Martin Rusterholz

Image cre­ated by Skychart

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About Me

Hello, my name is Martin Rusterholz. I’m a Swiss amateur astrophotographer living near Zurich, the biggest town in Switzerland. My interest in astronomy started when I was 16. At that time, I built my first Newtonian telescope and mount. I studied physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) which was the only study including at least some aspects of astronomy and astrophysics. “Looking at the nights sky is an experience touching everybody deeply inside, something common to all human beings independent to the language spoken by the individuals”. Deep-sky astrophotography is my passion.

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