This rarely imaged spiral galaxy is located 70 million light years away in the constellation of Pisces at a declination of +6 degrees. The magnitude 12 galaxy spans about 3 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to an actual diameter of 60,000 light years.
This galaxy is classified as a Seyfert galaxy. Seyfert galaxies are galaxies that have a bright quasar-like core, but unlike quasars, the rest of the galaxy disk is visible. Seyfert galaxies have been described as looking like a normal spiral galaxy with a star superimposed over the core. My
Seyfert galaxy collection is here.
The interesting thing about this Seyfert galaxy is that it actually has a star superimposed over its core! This 10.5 magnitude superimposed star (BD+05 244) is 1000 light years away, which is 70,000 times closer than the galaxy. I don't believe I have ever imaged a galaxy with such a well-aligned superimposed star with the core.
The main reason that I imaged this object is because SIMBAD shows it as having faint reddish Ha-like areas surrounding the core, like M82. But I took extensive Ha subs and nothing showed up. I believe those reddish regions in SIMBAD are simply artifacts from the bright superimposed star.
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