NGC147 – a spectacularly unspectacular dwarf spheroidal in Cassiopeia

About the Object

NGC 147 is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It is a galaxy in the Local Group and part of the Andromeda subgroup. NGC147 was discovered by John Herschel, the son of William Herschel.

Owing to its proximity of 2.5MLy, it is actually fairly extended on the camera sensor - not many galaxies are of similar apparent size. this could be  ideal conditions to exhibit many features. But NGC 147 has basically none, no shell, no tidal tails - not  even in the Hubble image, making it a spectacularly unspectacular galaxy. Every little feature one finds when browsing around turns at the end out to be a background galaxy. Colorwise, it appears pretty yellow owing to its old stellar population, no recent star formation. Luckily there are some foreground stars, whose colors break the monotony of the image.

Observation Notes

Data were taken on 2024 November 26, 30, and December 1

Technical Details

View the full-resolution image together with complete acquisition and processing details on AstroBin.