An edge-on
galaxy with a twist
NGC 7640 is a little-visited
gem that lies 4o to the southwest of the popular
"Blue Snowball" planetary nebula. This galaxy is
small and faint, making a more difficult target. It
is classified as a barred spiral and appears to have undergone an
interaction of some sort.
In my 18-inch at 82X it
is visible as a long, faint smudge with an irregular brightening
near the center. At 166X I could make out the elongated
nuclear region of this apparently interacting galaxy. It
appears sort of cocked at an angle to the outer portions of the
galaxy and has a slight twist to it.
The
field in an 8-inch at 100x. North is down and east is to the
right. |
