The Helix Nebula is a planetary nebula (PN) located in the constellation Aquarius. Discovered by Karl Ludwig Harding, most likely before 1824, this object is one of the closest of all the bright planetary nebulae to Earth. The distance, measured by the Gaia mission, is 655±13 light-years. It is similar in appearance to the Cat's Eye Nebula and the Ring Nebula, whose size, age, and physical characteristics are similar to the Dumbbell Nebula, varying only in its relative proximity and the appearance from the equatorial viewing angle. The Helix Nebula has sometimes been referred to as the "Eye of God" in pop culture, as well as the "Eye of Sauron".
NGC 7814 is a spiral galaxy about 40 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. The galaxy is seen edge-on from Earth. It is sometimes referred to as "the little sombrero", a miniature version of Messier 104. The star field behind NGC 7814 is known for its density of faint, remote galaxies as can be seen in the image here, in the same vein as the Hubble Deep Field.
NGC 1850 is a double cluster and a super star cluster in the Dorado constellation, located in the northwest part of the bar of the Large Magellanic Cloud, at a distance of 168 kly (51.5 kpc) from the Sun. It was discovered by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop in 1826.
NGC 5090 and NGC 5091 are a set of galaxies approximately 160 million light-years away in the constellation Centaurus. They are in the process of colliding and merging with some evidence of tidal disruption of NGC 5091.
The Herschel 400 catalogue is a subset of William Herschel's original Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, selected by Brenda F. Guzman (Branchett), Lydel Guzman, Paul Jones, James Morrison, Peggy Taylor and Sara Saey of the Ancient City Astronomy Club in St. Augustine, Florida, United States c. 1980. They decided to generate the list after reading a letter published in Sky & Telescope by James Mullaney of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
NGC 4151 is an intermediate spiral Seyfert galaxy with weak inner ring structure located 15.8 megaparsecs from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. The galaxy was first mentioned by William Herschel on March 17, 1787; it was one of the six Seyfert galaxies described in the paper which defined the term. It is one of the nearest galaxies to Earth to contain an actively growing supermassive black hole. The black hole would have a mass on the order of 2.5 million to 30 million solar masses. It was speculated that the nucleus may host a binary black hole, with about 40 million and about 10 million solar masses respectively, orbiting with a 15.8-year period. This is, however, still a matter of active debate.
NGC 1664 is an open cluster in the constellation of Auriga. It contains stars with a total of around 640 solar masses with a tidal radius of 43 ly (13.2 pc).
NGC 1277 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation of Perseus. It is a member of the Perseus Cluster of galaxies and is located approximately 73 Mpc (megaparsecs) or 220 million light-years from the Milky Way. It has an apparent magnitude of about 14.7. It was discovered on December 4, 1875 by Lawrence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse.
NGC 2298 is a globular cluster in the southern constellation of Puppis. Discovered by James Dunlop on May 30, 1826, it is probably a former member of the disputed Canis Major Dwarf galaxy.
NGC 936 is a barred lenticular galaxy in the constellation Cetus. It is at a distance of about 60 million light-years away from Earth. Its nucleus and prominent bar have high surface brightness. Because of the shape of the prominent bar, the nucleus and the ring of stars at the end of the barrel, the galaxy has been compared with the shape of a TIE fighter, from the Star Wars universe, and thus NGC 936 has been named Darth Vader’s Galaxy or Darth Vader’s Starfighter. By measuring the radial velocity of the disc, Kormendy found in 1986 that the disc is stable, which is the reason why it is so smooth.
NGC 214 is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Andromeda, located at a distance of 194 megalight-years from the Milky Way. It was discovered on September 10, 1784 by William Herschel. The shape of this galaxy is given by its morphological classification of SABbc, which indicates a weak bar-like structure (SAB) at the core and moderate to loosely-wound spiral arms (bc).
NGC 5050 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by a German astronomer Albert Marth on April 30, 1864. It is also known as CGCG 44-43, MCG 1-34-12, PGC 46138, UGC 8329.
NGC 5470 is an edge-on spiral galaxy located between 43 and 68 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by astronomer John Herschel in 1830. It is a member of the Virgo III Groups, a series of galaxies and galaxy clusters strung out to the east of the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies.
NGC 1997 is an open cluster located in the Dorado constellation which is part of the Large Magellanic Cloud. It was discovered by John Herschel on November 30, 1834. Its apparent magnitude is 13.43 and its size is 1.80 arc minutes.
NGC 1060 is a lenticular galaxy approximately 256 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Triangulum. It was discovered by William Herschel on September 12, 1784.
NGC 680 is an elliptical galaxy located in the constellation Aries. It is located at a distance of circa 120 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 680 is about 100,000 light years across. It was discovered by William Herschel on September 15, 1784.
NGC 5793 is an active spiral galaxy located approximately 150 million light years away in the constellation Libra. It is classified as a Type 2 Seyfert galaxy and was discovered by Francis Leavenworth in 1886. The galactic plane is inclined at an angle of 73°, giving it an oval, nearly edge-on appearance with the major axis aligned along a position angle of 150°.
NGC 3717 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation of Hydra at an approximate distance of 81.43 million light years. NGC 3717 was discovered in 1834 by Sir John Herschel.
NGC 1444 is a small open cluster of stars in the northern constellation of Perseus, about 2-1⁄4° to the northwest of 43 Persei. It has an angular diameter of 4 arcminutes and a brightness of 6.60 in visual magnitude. The cluster has sixty members of seventh magnitude or fainter, and is better appreciated in larger telescopes. NGC 1444 was discovered on 18 December 1788 by the German-British astronomer William Herschel. It is located at a distance of 4,200 light-years from the Sun and is about 7.1 million years old. The cluster has a physical core radius of 1.73 ± 0.42 ly and a tidal radius of 17.4 ± 4.2 ly. The most prominent member is the triple star system Σ446, with a magnitude 6.7 primary. The cluster is a member of the Camelopardalis OB1 association.
NGC 7457 is an unbarred lenticular galaxy in the constellation Pegasus. NGC 7457 is its New General Catalogue designation. It was discovered by the astronomer William Herschel on 12 September 1784.
