NGC 80 - Galaxy Group
This beautiful galaxy group around NGC 80 is located in the constellation Andromeda and is about 260...270 million light years away from us.
The brightest galaxies were already discovered in 1828 by the British astronomer John Herschel, the son of Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel.
The most luminous galaxies are NGC 80 and NGC 83 with an apparent brightness of 12.2mag and 12.6mag respectively. So they are visible even in
smaller telescopes. NGC 80 is a lenticular galaxy of Hubble Type SO, having an absolute magnitude of M=-21.6mag and a diameter of 120,000
light-years. Noticeable is that the escape velocity of 5,700km/s does not quite match the 6,600km/s of the other galaxies in the group. NGC 83,
on the other hand, is an E0-type elliptical galaxy and is also 120,000 light-years across.
Among many other elliptical galaxies, two larger spiral galaxies can be found in the NGC 80 galaxy group. NGC 90 has a diameter of 140,000
light-years. However, due to interactions, one spiral arm can be traced over a length of more than 330,000 light-years. NGC 93 is a so-called
"super spiral" with a diameter of 240,000 light years. It is about twice the size of our Milky Way, but its luminosity is similar with a 20 billion
suns.
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This galaxy group offers a great sight in my 20 inch f/3.2 telescope at higher magnifications. At V=270x you can see a chain of brighter galaxies
running north-south. The brightest galaxy is NGC 80, which has a stellar nucleus in the center. The many other elliptical galaxies are also easy
to see with averted vision, the faint ones require a little bit more patience. Particularly well located is NGC 83, which can be found right next to
a small triangle of brighter stars.
The two spiral galaxies are also quite interesting. While the "Super Spiral" NGC 93 appears rather elongated and shows a faint stellar core in the
center, the halo of NGC 90 appears slightly mottled and after some time two pale spiral arms peel out. However, these are only visible in the
innermost part and unfortunately cannot be traced over the whole length.
