The Scarecrow (IC 1613) in Cetus
The Scarecrow IC 1613 was photographically discovered in 1906 by Max Wolf. Although that this Irregular Barred Dwarf galaxy in Cetus is shining at 9th magnitude, its light is spread across an area of sky about the size of a quarter Moon. This extremly low suface brightness is the reason IC 1613 escaped from beeing discovered earlier.
IC 1613 lies 2.3 million light-years distant, so it is as far as M31 and member of the Local Group, and its diameter measures 12’400 light-years. Its interior looks streched, fragmented, shorn and tattered from gravitational interractions in the past. The spatial distance from Andromeda Galaxy is nearly 2 million light-years which is far too great to be considered to be closly related.
Long exposure was needed to bring out some details of the galaxy and its HII region. North is up in this image.
[description from O’Merara]
Details
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. 