Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 7321 & Supernova 2008gj

A 10 minute exposure with an STL-1301E CCD camera thru Kopernik's 20-inch F/8.1 Ritchey Chretien Cassegrain telescope. The field of view is about 13x16 arc minutes, with North at the top.

Time: 3:45 UT, October 24th, 2008.

Supernova 2008gj:

Discovered: October 19th, 2008, by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search Team, and independently by G. Duszanowicz.

• Magnitude 18.1 at discovery
• Type Ic
• The supernova is about magnitude 17.95 in the Kopernik image.

Follow this Link to a NASA Web site on supernovas. It has a very nice animation and a description of what these objects are.

Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 7321:

NGC 7321 is in the constellation of Pegasus. This galaxy has a small bright nucleus, with two main spiral arms that start at the end of the bar. They wrap almost completely around the bar creating an apparent inner ring. PGC 69282 is a 15.4 magnitude galaxy of unknown type that lies just to the south. However, there have been no red-shift measurements on this galaxy, so it is unknown if it is an actual companion of NGC 7321, or just a background system. A rough distance estimate for NGC 7321 and Supernova 2008gj is 243 million light years, and at that distance, the diameter would be 159,500 light years.

• NGC 7321
• Magnitude: 13.7
• Constellation: Pegasus
• RA: 22h 36m 27.3s
• Dec: +21° 37' 12" Epoch 2000
• Size (mins): 1.6' x 1.1'
• Classification: SB(r)b Barred Spiral Galaxy with inner ring.
  

George Normandin, KAS

October 24th, 2008