- NGC 7331 Deer Lick Galaxy Group
NGC 7331 is the brighest spiral galaxy in the constellation Pegasus (visual magnitude 9.5). It lies at a distance of 49 million LY and is surrounded by a number of smaller, fainter galaxies, none of which are brighter than magnitude 14. Four lie just to the east of NGC 7331 (left in my image) and are, from top to bottom, NGC 7336, NGC 7335, NGC 7340, and NGC 7337. These smaller galaxies are background objects lying at around 300 to 350 million LY from us. Another small galaxy, NGC 7326, lies in the upper right corner of my image. Several other galaxies appear as faint smudges around NGC 7331. NGC 7331 itself is thought to have a similar structure to the Andromeda Galaxy (M 31), but is located much farther away and thus is not as spectacular an object when viewed in a small telescope.
NGC 7331 was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. It was overlooked by Charles Messier. The name "Deer Lick Galaxy" alludes to observations of this galaxy by the American astronomer Tomm Lorenzin made at Deer Lick Gap, North Carolina. The smaller galaxies surrounding NGC 7331 are sometimes called "The Fleas".
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