Spiral Galaxy NGC 1003 in Perseus

This is an 10 minute exposure with an ST-6 CCD camera thru Kopernik's 20-inch F/8.1 Ritchey Chretien Cassegrain telescope. The field of view is about 5x7 arc minutes.

NGC 1003 is a diffuse Spiral Galaxy in the Constellation of Perseus. It has an ill-defined nucleus and patchy multiple spiral arms. There is a cluster of spiral galaxies in the background, at least 3 or which can be seen in the Kopernik image above. This galaxy was the host of Supernova 1937D, a 13th magnitude type Ia. The Hubble Space Telescope has observed the "light echo" of this supernova.

Based on the published red shift, (Hubble Constant of 62 Km/sec per Mpc) a rough distance estimate for NGC 1003 is 33 million light years, with a diameter of about 52,725 light years.

Dreyer's description from the New General Catalog(NGC): "Pretty faint, large, extended 90° +/-, much brighter middle, resolvable, but mottled."

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• NGC 1003
• Magnitude: 11.9
• Constellation: Perseus
• RA: 02h 39m 16.4s
• Dec: +40° 52' 22" Epoch 2000
• Size (mins): 5.5' x 1.9'
• Classification: SA(s)cd
                          Spiral, S-shaped
  
  

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George Normandin, KAS

January 15th, 2003