Right ascension 00 18 18.48 Redshift 0.01913 Distance 260,000,000 Magnitude 12.9 Apparent magnitude (V) 12.9 | Declination 30° 04′ 15.4″ Helio radial velocity 5735 Group or cluster NGC 68 group Constellation Andromeda | |
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Similar NGC 72, NGC 67, NGC 69, NGC 76, NGC 43 | ||
NGC 68 is an lenticular galaxy, and the central member of the NGC 68 group, in the constellation Andromeda. The galaxy was discovered on September 11, 1784, by William Herschel, who observed the NGC 68 group as a single object and described it as "extremely faint, large, 3 or 4 stars plus nebulosity". As such, his reported location is between NGC 68, NGC 70, and NGC 71. By the time Dreyer looked at the galaxies to add to the NGC catalog, however, he was able to tell that the single galaxy observed by Herschel was in fact 3 adjacent galaxies, and cataloged them as NGC 68, NGC 70, and NGC 71.
References
NGC 68 Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA