IC 1613 - Dwarf Galaxy
The galaxy "IC 1613" is located only 2° north of the celestial equator in the constellation of Cetus at a distance of 2.38 million light years. It belongs to
the "Local Group", an association of about 50 galaxies, to which also our own Milky Way belongs. The radial velocity was determined to be -235km/s, so
IC 1613 is getting closer to us, in contrast to almost all other galaxies that are moving away from us.
The dwarf galaxy with its very low surface brightness was first discovered in 1906 by Max Wolf. 22 years later Walter Baade was able to resolve
the first stars in NGC 1613 with a 2.5 meter telescope, revealing the true nature of the nebula.
Due to its small extent of only 11,000 light-years, IC 1613 belongs to the class of dwarf galaxies. It has an irregular shape and does not have a bar or
spiral arms like our Milky Way. Because IC 1613 contains only very little dust, the stars of the galaxy can be observed very well not only in the outer regions
but also in the center. Their number is estimated to be a few hundred millions. The age of the stars was determined to 7 billion years in 1999, but there is also
a much younger population. In addition there are a handful of variable stars, for example Cepheids, with which the distance to IC 1613 was determined
very precisely. Also in 1999 a nova was discovered in this dwarf galaxy - the only one so far.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to observe IC 1613 successfully, you should get under a dark sky and choose a low magnification because of the low surface brightness of the
object - otherwise you won't see anything at all!
Even in my 20" f/3.2 telescope not very much is visible at the first view through the eyepiece except for a handful of stars. Once your eyes are adapted,
a very faint, featureless patch of light appears with averted vision, getting a bit brighter towards the center. After some time, two more fainter patches of
light peel out of the sky background, but they are difficult to hold even indirectly.
