Barnard's Galaxy (NGC 6822)
An irregular dwarf galaxy in Sagittarius, a member of the Local Group. It has a low surface brightness and is a challenging telescopic object, appearing as a large, faint glow with some brighter knots (HII regions) best seen under very dark skies.
Galaxy in Sagittarius. Magnitude 9.3.
Can you see it from Guyana?
From Georgetown (6.8° N) it climbs to 68° above the southern horizon at its highest; from Lethem (3.4° N), to 72° above the southern horizon. It is highest at midnight on the night of 16 Jul, in the middle of its season. The page works out tonight's rise, highest point and set for both towns in Guyana time (UTC-4), and where the Moon is.
What you'll see
- Your eyes: Not visible to the eye.
- 10x50 binoculars: Not visible in binoculars.
- A small telescope (80 to 100 mm): Very faint: a dark site, low power and patience.
- A camera: Spans about 40% of an APS-C frame at 2,000 mm (field 0.7° × 0.4°); needs a tracking mount.
How big, how bright, how far
- Size on the sky: 17′, 55% of the Moon's width (the Moon is about 31′ wide).
- Brightness: magnitude 9.3. Fainter than the faintest stars in Georgetown (4.3) and Lethem (6.0): binoculars or a telescope.
- Distance: 1.6 million light-years. The light reaching your eye left it about 1.6 million years ago.
Apparent size from OpenNGC (Mattia Verga), CC-BY-SA-4.0.
What it is made of
- Type
- Barred Irregular Dwarf Galaxy
- Distance
- Approx. 1.6 million Lightyears
- True size
- Approx. 7,000 Lightyears diameter
- Stars (Millions): Irregular distribution, some clusters
- HII Regions: Several prominent star-forming nebulae
- Gas and Dust: Relatively rich for its size
More deep-sky objects: Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253) · Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) · Centaurus A (NGC 5128) · Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (M83) · Andromeda Galaxy (M31) · Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)