A satellite of M31, also known as NGC205, M110 is the elongated elliptical galaxy just to the northwest of M31. About 15000 light-years across, M110 is comparable in size to the Magellanic Clouds, which are satellites of our galaxy. Elliptical galaxies usually contain little gas, and only old stars, but M110 has dust clouds, and young stars, perhaps as a result of its gravitational interaction with M31.

Note: A Wikisky search for NGC 206 shows the correct region, but at such a high magnification that it is impossible to tell what is being shown; for a more effective search, use the coordinates.

Per Malcolm Thomson: Several references (including HyperLeda and Wikisky) equate IC 41 with NGC 207, but this is wrong, as shown in the wide-field image below.

The second Index Catalog lists a corrected RA (per Howe) of 00 32 04.

See NGC 203 for images and physical data. This entry will only be concerned with the double listing.

(Listed as an edge-on dwarf amorphous galaxy in research paper, perhaps 16 million light years away)

Per Dreyer, NGC 218 (= Stephan's list VIII (a-#3), 1860 RA 00 34 57, NPD 54 26.4) is "extremely faint, very small, round, gradually brighter middle". The position precesses to RA 00 42 30.1, Dec +36 19 43, over 4 minutes west of the correct position, which led to a century of confusion and even at the present date, a badly mistaken identification. The nearest galaxy to Stephan/Dreyer's incorrect position is PGC 2493, another 45 seconds of time to the west, which (as noted in the NGCIC Project entry) seems an unusually poor match for one of Stephan's measurements. Ironically, the answer to the mystery of what Stephan observed has been available for nearly a century. As noted in Steinicke's book about the NGC, and in a 1914 history of the Marseilles Observatory by none other than Stephan himself, sometime prior to 1914 a student assistant at the Observatory, Emmanuel Esmiol, was given the task (apparently by the then-director of the Observatory, Guillaume Bigourdan) of collecting all of Stephan's discoveries, and converting their positions to the 1900 Equinox. Apparently the work was completed prior to Stephan's 1914 history, even though it wasn't published until 1916; and hidden in it is the true identity of NGC 218. Namely, as "recently" noticed (per Corwin) by Steve Gottlieb, Esmiol discovered a 4 minute error in the reduction of Stephan's VIIIa-#3, and his 1900 position precesses almost exactly to the position of the actual NGC 218, namely PGC 2720, as listed above. It should be noted that this identification, although absolutely certain, has not yet been corrected in the NGC/IC Project, LEDA, or Wikisky, all of which list or show the wrong galaxy, PGC 2493, as NGC 218 (NED also showed the wrong object until recently, but has corrected the error). Even Steinicke, who has corrected his database to the values shown above, was unaware of the problem at the time he wrote his exhaustive history of the NGC. In a discussion of Esmiol's work, Steinicke mentioned that Esmiol's catalog listed four discoveries by Stephan which had not received NGC or IC numbers, and shows a picture of the most interesting of the four, which is actually the unrecognized NGC 218. Obviously, under these circumstances, any reference to NGC 218 cannot be trusted unless accompanied by its position or PGC listing. If the reference is to PGC 2720 the identification is certain, and the information hopefully trustworthy. If the reference is to PGC 2493 the information may be trustworthy for that object, but the identification is completely wrong. For that reason, the following information is based on a search for PGC 2720, not NGC 218. Based on a recessional velocity of 11220 km/sec, a straightforward calculation indicates that NGC 218 is about 525 million light years away. But for objects at such distances, we must take into account the expansion of the Universe during the time it took the light from the object to reach us. Doing that shows that the galaxy was about 500 million light years away when the light by which we see it was emitted, about 510 million years ago (the difference between the two numbers being due to the expansion of the space through which the light traveled during its half-billion year long journey). Given that and its apparent size of 1.5 by 1.2 arcmin, the galaxy is about 220 thousand light years across. However, the listed size may not fully take into account the distorted shape of the galaxy, due to its interaction with PGC 2726.

Based on a recessional velocity of 11095 km/sec, a straightforward calculation indicates that PGC 2726 is about 515 million light years away, in reasonably good agreement with redshift-independent distance estimates of 530 to 575 million light years. But for objects at such distances, we must take into account the expansion of the Universe during the time it took the light of the object to reach us. Doing that shows that the galaxy was about 490 million light years away when the light by which we see it was emitted, about 500 million years ago (the difference between the two numbers being due to the expansion of the space through which the light traveled during its half-billion year long journey). However, the galaxy is obviously interacting with NGC 218 (which see for images), so whatever the actual distance of the two galaxies is, it must be the same for both of them. Given that and its apparent size of 0.8 by 0.4 arcmin, PGC 2726 is about 115 thousand light years across.

(Until very recently, PGC 4293 was thought to be NGC 218 (which see for a discussion of the mistake), even though it was a poor match for the supposed position of that object; and as a result, it is still listed as NGC 218 in every database I have seen, save for Wolfgang Steinicke's 2011 Revised NGC and IC Catalog.) Based on a recessional velocity of 4895 km/sec, PGC 2493 is about 225 million light years away. Given that and its apparent size of 1.1 by 1.1 arcmin, it is about 75 thousand light years across.

Apparent size about 0.8 by 0.8 arcmin (per LEDA)

Apparent size about 0.6 by 0.6 arcmin (per LEDA)

(See IC 44 for a discussion of the double identification.) Based on recessional velocity of 5330 km/sec, about 240 million light years away. Given that and apparent size of 0.4 by 0.3 arcmin, about 30 thousand light years across.

The nearest large galaxy to ours, M31 has two elliptical companions, M32 (just below and near the disc of M31 in the image below), and M110 (above M31, in the image below). With its 100 thousand light-year diameter and 2 million light-year distance, M31 appears about the same size as three full moons placed side by side by side. But its low surface brightness makes it impossible to see in urban areas without optical aid, and even with a telescope, only the nucleus can be seen, as a faint elliptical blur. In dark skies its true extent is more obvious, and the dark lanes of dust crossing the disk can be picked out.

The second Index Catalog lists a corrected RA (per Howe) of 00 35 49.

The second Index Catalog lists a corrected RA (per Howe) of 00 35 57. (At least an optical pair with NGC 235B) Note: A Wikisky search for NGC 235 shows the correct galaxy, but the labels are offset to the west, so that NGC 235 is labeled NGC 235B, and the empty space to the northwest of the galaxy is labeled NGC 235.

Might would have appeared as a faint extension of NGC 235 to Leavenworth, but would not have been visible as a separate object. (At least an optical pair with NGC 235)

The second Index Catalog lists a corrected RA (per Howe) of 00 36 18.

The first Index Catalog lists a corrected RA (per Ormond Stone) of 00 38 40; but the second Index Catalog states (per Max Wolf) that the original NGC place is correct.

The nebula is being created by the fainter member of the binary star near the center of the nebula, as it enters the last stage of its life, collapsing from a red giant to a white dwarf.

A note in the NGC adds "According to Tempel, this nebula is 30 arcmin long". A recessional velocity of only 155 km/sec is too small to give a reliable estimate of distance, peculiar (non-Hubble expansion) velocities being that large or larger for many galaxies. Redshift-independent distance estimates previously ranged from 7 to 14 million light years away, with 12 million light years being the most generally agreed-upon distance. However, recent studies of Cepheid variables in NGC 247, taking into account the absorption of their light by dust in the nearly edge-on disc of the galaxy, indicate that it is only 11 million light years away, over a million light years closer than the previous estimate. Given that and its apparent size of about 21 by 7 arcmin, it is about 70 thousand light years across. NGC 247 is part of the Sculptor Group, one of the nearest groups of galaxies to our Milky Way galaxy. Some of the galaxies in the group are only loosely bound to the cluster, but NGC 247 is one of a central core of galaxies which are strongly influenced by each other's gravity, such as the namesake of the group, NGC253.

Part of the Small Magellanic Cloud

Part of the Small Magellanic Cloud