Galaxies are perhaps one of the most attractive deep-sky objects to observe and photograph. They represent massive collections of dust, gas and countless billions of stars and are best described as islands of space matter across the universe. They are characterized as being either spiral or elliptical in nature and usually have a bright central core. Equally stunning to observe (with large-aperture telescopes) and image are galaxy clusters which represent collections of gravitationally-bound groups of galaxies whose members number from tens to thousands and which are classified on the basis of their richness (ie. number of galaxy members), shape (spherical, flat or irregular) and content (spiral or elliptical). Charles Messier's list of deep-sky celestial gems includes approximately forty bright and large galaxies.

Note: NGC 205 illustrated below is part of the M31 triplet which includes the Andromeda galaxy (M31) and another satellite galaxy (M32). This dwarf spheroidal galaxy lies at a distance of 2.7 billion light-years away and spans 15 light-years across with an estimated mass equivalent to 3.6 to 15 billion suns. Although M110 is about four times larger than the other major satellite galaxy, M32, it is also about 0.4 magnitudes dimmer. NGC 205 was discovered by Charles Messier in 1737 but strangely never included it in his catalog. The addition occurred much later when in 1966 Jones added NGC 205 to the Messier catalog as object 110. The Andromeda triplet comprised of M31, M32 and M110 is best observed during late summer and early fall when it is directly overhead.

NGC 205 is also one of the approximately 60 galaxies for which (extragalactic) globular clusters have been identified with its six clusters ranging in magnitude from 16.6 to 18.0 and dated from 1.2+0.6 to 11+2 billion years-old (click here and here).