Andromeda VI

RA:

23 : 51.7

Dec:

+24 : 36

Type:

dSph

RV:

Distance:

2800 kly

Apparent Dimension:

Diameter:

Brightness:

Abs. Mag:

Mass:

The image shown in this page is a true-color image obtained with the 3.5-meter WIYN telescope on Kitt Peak. Most individual stars resolved in the newly discovered dwarf galaxy are slightly red in color, but a few very evolved stars are extremely red. Some blue stars are also present, perhaps foreground stars situated in our own Milky Way galaxy.

This galaxy has been discovered independently at about the same time in 1998 by a team of astronomers in Russia and Ukraine, who named them Pegasus dwarf (Peg dSph), together with another M31 dwarf spheroid, Andromeda VII which they named Cassiopeia dwarf (Cas dSph).

Image Credit: George Jacoby/WIYN/NOAO/NSF

• Same image with magnification of the central part of And VI, showing resolution into tightly packed stars. Credit: George Jacoby/WIYN/NOAO/NSF
• More information on this image (N.A. Sharp, NOAO)
• And VI discovery page (George Jacoby, NOAO)
• And VI and And VII Keck imaging (Eva Grebel and Raja Guhathakurta), local copy; Keck image of And VI)

Amateur sightings have been reported on the Internet Amateur Astronomers Catalog (IAAC) mailing list by Rich Jakiel who saw it under good conditions (visual limiting mag 6.0) on November 27, 1999 from Villa Rica, GA (USA) with a 20-inch f/4.5 reflector at 229x/260x, and describes it as

"A very weak glow spotted about 1.5'N of a 10th mag Star. The main body of the galaxy roughly framed by a several 14-15th mag stars."

Involved with and just S of a group of 8 faint stars about 3' NE of a 10.09 mag star. Best seen with the field moving and averted vision as a very slightly brighter part of the field. Slightly brighter to the middle.

References

• T.E. Armandroff, J.E. Davies, and G.H. Jacoby, 1998. Astronomical Journal, vol. 116, p. 2287 [ADS: 1998AJ....116.2287A]

Last Modification: March 9, 2000