NGC 6691 — Sbc in Draco
Sbc in Draco, 1.5 arcminutes across, its light 280 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 6691
What you are looking at
NGC 6691 is a spiral of the same broad class astronomers give the Milky Way: a moderate bulge and clearly drawn arms. We look down on it almost face-on, so its structure is laid out as if on a map. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 118,000 light-years, about 1.2 times the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
Astronomers' catalogues record it under 11 different designations.
When this light set out
The light that reaches us from NGC 6691 today set out about 280 million years ago, when the continents had joined into Pangaea. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 5,884 km/s (13.2 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
NGC 6691 lies in Draco. From most of the United States it never sets: it circles the north celestial pole all year, and stands highest on summer evenings, around August.
By apparent size it is number 4,045 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 62202 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | Sbc |
| Angular diameter | 1.47′ |
| Right ascension | 18h39m12.3s |
| Declination | +55°38′30.0″ |
| Constellation | Draco |
| Inclination | 21.0° |
| Light travel time | 280 million years |
| Bar | yes, from the catalogue |
Check every figure above in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
What is sold
A print of this galaxy and the record of the calculation, once. When it sells it leaves the register and is not offered again. We assign no names and no ownership — nobody can sell you those.
At 1.5 arcminutes this is a Collection galaxy, which is the tier where a real photograph shows its shape and how far it is tilted away from us. The tier comes from the measured diameter, not from a price list.
Take this galaxy — $590 Browse the Collection