Virgo is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for maiden, and its old astronomical symbol is . Between Leo to the west and Libra to the east, it is the second-largest constellation in the sky and the largest constellation in the zodiac. The ecliptic intersects the celestial equator within this constellation and Pisces. Underlying these technical two definitions, the sun passes directly overhead of the equator, within this constellation, at the September equinox. Virgo can be easily found through its brightest star, Spica.
Leo Minor is a small and faint constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere. Its name is Latin for "the smaller lion", in contrast to Leo, the larger lion. It lies between the larger and more recognizable Ursa Major to the north and Leo to the south. Leo Minor was not regarded as a separate constellation by classical astronomers; it was designated by Johannes Hevelius in 1687.
Indus is a constellation in the southern sky first professionally surveyed by Europeans in the 1590s and mapped on a globe by Petrus Plancius by early 1598. It was included on a plate illustrating southern constellations in Bayer's sky atlas Uranometria in 1603. It lies well south of the Tropic of Capricorn but its triangular shape can be seen for most of the year from the Equator. It is elongated from north to south and has a complex boundary. The English translation of its name is generally given as the Indian, though it is unclear which indigenous people the constellation was originally supposed to represent.
NGC 55, is a Magellanic type barred spiral galaxy located about 6.5 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. Along with its neighbor NGC 300, it is one of the closest galaxies to the Local Group, probably lying between the Milky Way and the Sculptor Group. It has an estimated mass of (2.0 ± 0.4) × 1010M☉.
The Sculptor Galaxy is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. The Sculptor Galaxy is a starburst galaxy, which means that it is currently undergoing a period of intense star formation.
NGC 1 is an intermediate spiral galaxy of the morphological type Sbc, located in the constellation of Pegasus. It was discovered on 30 September 1861 by Heinrich d'Arrest.
NGC 6946, sometimes referred to as the Fireworks Galaxy, is a face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, whose location in the sky straddles the boundary between the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus. Its distance from Earth is about 25.2 million light-years or 7.72 megaparsecs, similar to the distance of M101 in the constellation Ursa Major. Both were once considered to be part of the Local Group, but are now known to be among the dozen bright spiral galaxies near the Milky Way but beyond the confines of the Local Group. NGC 6946 lies within the Virgo Supercluster.
The Spring Triangle is an astronomical asterism involving an imaginary triangle drawn upon the celestial sphere, with its defining vertices at Arcturus, Spica, and Regulus. This triangle connects the constellations of Boötes, Virgo, and Leo. It is visible in the evening rising in the southeastern sky of the Northern Hemisphere between March and May and setting until August, while at morning rising and setting from November to the end of February.
NGC 147 is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy about 2.58 Mly away in the constellation Cassiopeia. NGC 147 is a member of the Local group of galaxies and a satellite galaxy of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). It forms a physical pair with the nearby galaxy NGC 185, another remote satellite of M31. It was discovered by John Herschel in September 1829. Visually it is both fainter and slightly larger than NGC 185. This means that NGC 147 is more difficult to see than NGC 185, which is visible in small telescopes. In the Webb Society Deep-Sky Observer's Handbook, the visual appearance of NGC 147 is described as follows:
Large, quite faint, irregularly round; it brightens in the middle to a stellar nucleus.
NGC 4565 is an edge-on spiral galaxy about 30 to 50 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It lies close to the North Galactic Pole and has a visual magnitude of approximately 10. It is known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile. First recorded in 1785 by William Herschel, it is a prominent example of an edge-on spiral galaxy.
NGC 6231 is an open cluster in the southern sky located half a degrees north of Zeta Scorpii. NGC 6231 is part of a swath of young, bluish stars in the constellation Scorpius known as the Scorpius OB1 association. The star Zeta1 is a member of this association, while its brighter apparent partner, Zeta2, is only 150 ly from Earth and so is not a member.
NGC 23 is a spiral galaxy located in the northern constellation of Pegasus, around 173.5 megalight-years distant from the Milky Way. It was discovered by William Herschel on 10 September 1784. In the Webb Society Deep-Sky Observer's Handbook, the visual appearance of NGC 23 is described as follows:
Bright, extended ellipse; a bright nuclear structure is noticeably elongated; two weak spiral enhancements emerge from opposite sides of the nucleus, one curving towards a bright star attached on the south end. The galaxy is likely interacting with NGC 9.
Abell 262 is a galaxy cluster in the Abell catalogue. It is part of the Perseus–Pisces Supercluster, one of the largest known structures in the universe. Although its central galaxy, NGC 708, is a giant cD galaxy, most of its bright galaxies are spirals, which is unusual for a galaxy cluster. With approximately 200 members it is a comparatively small cluster.
NGC 492, also occasionally referred to as PGC 4976 or GC 280, is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces. It is located approximately 590 million light-years from Earth and was discovered on December 6, 1850 by Irish engineer Bindon Blood Stoney. Although John Dreyer, creator of the New General Catalogue, credits the discovery to astronomer William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, he notes that many of his claimed discoveries were made by one of his assistants. In the case of NGC 492, the discovery was made by Bindon Stoney, who discovered it along with NGC 486, NGC 490 and NGC 500 during his observation of NGC 488 using Lord Rosse's 72" telescope.
NGC 502, also occasionally referred to as PGC 5034 or UGC 922, is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Pisces. It is located approximately 113 million light-years from the Solar System and was discovered on 25 September 1862 by German astronomer Heinrich Louis d'Arrest. When the Morphological Catalogue of Galaxies was published between 1962 and 1974, the identifications of NGC 502 and NGC 505 were reversed. In reality, NGC 502 is equal to MGC +01-04-041 and not MCG +01-04-043 as noted in the catalogue.
NGC 521, also occasionally referred to as PGC 5190 or UGC 962, is a barred spiral galaxy located approximately 224 million light-years from the Solar System in the constellation Cetus. It was discovered on 8 October 1785 by astronomer William Herschel.
NGC 741, also known as PGC 7252, is a formerly active radio galaxy in the constellation of Pisces. Located 74.13 Mpc away, NGC 741 is part of a group of galaxies including NGC 742 and PGC 7250. NGC 741 and NGC 742 recently collided, although the disruption was minor. Radio filaments have been found connecting NGC 741 to NGC 742, and due to the bent structure of the radio filaments, NGC 741 is estimated to be moving at 1400 km/s with respect to its local group, suggesting that ram-pressure stripping was created as a product of the former merger.
NGC 5523 is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Boötes, registered in New General Catalogue (NGC). The galaxy forms an equilateral triangle with NGC 5641 and NGC 5466 when observed using a telescope from the ground.
NGC 5641 is a type Sb-barred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Boötes, registered in New General Catalogue (NGC). It is located five degrees east of NGC 5466.
