Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Eridanus (Eri)  ·  Contains:  NGC 1269  ·  NGC 1291
NGC 1291, Gary Imm
NGC 1291, Gary Imm

NGC 1291

NGC 1291, Gary Imm
NGC 1291, Gary Imm

NGC 1291

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

This object, also known as NGC 1269, is a face-on double-barred double-ringed spiral galaxy located 36 million light years away in the southern constellation of Eridanus at a declination of -41 degrees. The outer extent of this 9.4 magnitude galaxy spans 10 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 110,000 light years.

Instead of arms, this galaxy has multiple rings and bars. The slightly oval outer ring of faint stars is oriented orthogonally to the mid-region bright oval ring. I do not understand the reason for these different ring orientations.

Likewise, the two bars are at slightly different orientations. The small bright central bar is rotated slightly counterclockwise from larger mid-region bar. This larger bar has ansae at each end, mainly extending clockwise from the end of the bar.

Comments