Maffei 1

RA:

02 : 36.3

Dec:

+59 : 39

Type:

E / S0- pec:

RV:

+13 km/s

Distance:

10,000 kly

Apparent Dimension:

3.4 x 1.7 arc min

Diameter:

Brightness:

+11.4 mag

Abs. Mag:

Mass:

Following its discovery, Maffei 1 was considered to be an outlying member of the Local Group for some time.

Maffei 1 is one of the dominating members of a nearby group of galaxies called the Maffei 1 group or IC 342 group of galaxies. It is thought that in the past, this group may have been a subgroup of the Local Group which has been ejected. Now it has travelled to about 10 million light years distance.

The image on the right was obtained by Chris and Dawn Schur from Payson, Arizona with their 12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian and SBIG ST7E CCD camera with enhanced cooling. This is an LRGB composite image, exposed LRGB = 60:20:20:20 (RGB Binned 2x2).