NGC 128 - Galaxy Group
This group of galaxies is located about 200 million light years from Earth in the constellation Pisces. The brightest member of the group is NGC 128,
which was discovered already in 1790 by F.W. Herschel with a 19" telescope thanks to its apparent brightness of 11.8mag.
NGC 128 is a lenticular galaxy of Hubble Type S0 and has a diameter of 140,000 light years. This makes it a little larger than the Milky Way. The bulge
of the galaxy has a very interesting shape. It is not round but has an x-shaped structure. This is found in many galaxies (also in our Milky Way), but usually
not so pronounced. It is assumed that this "X" is caused by gravitational effects due to interactions with the two companions NGC 127/130. On long
exposure images a "tidal bridge" from NGC 127 to NGC 128 can be seen.
The two companions are only about 40-45,000 light-years across and both are of type S0. With an apparent magnitude of about 14.5mag they are much
fainter than NGC 128 and were therefore discovered only in 1850.
Also in the field there are two more galaxies, NGC 125 and NGC 126.
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In my 20" telescope four faint galaxies are visible in the eyepiece at a magnification of 270x, which are spread around a bright galaxy. They are easy to
see with averted vision, but do not reveal any exciting structures.
NGC 128, on the other hand, appears quite bright and elongated. The bulge is unfortunately not visible as x-shaped, but rather elongated with a brighter
stellar core. Two extensions run off to the north and south, with the one to the south appearing longer and brighter.
