This group of galaxies, NGC 771, NGC 7335, NGC 7336, and NGC 7337, in the constellation of Pegasus is called the Deer Lick Group. Spiral galaxy NGC 7331 is an unbarred spiral galaxy and is the brightest and closest at 39.5 million light years in Pegasus. It was one of William Herschel's earliest discoveries over 200 years ago. Although visible in large binoculars, it was missed by Messier. In many respects this galaxy’s appearance resembles the famous, much-elongated, Andromeda Galaxy, M-31 because of its nearly edge-on alignment. NGC 7331 is rich in glowing hydrogen/star forming regions, similar to M-42 in our Milky Way Galaxy. In spiral galaxies the central bulge typically co-rotates with the disk but the bulge in the galaxy NGC 7331 has retrograde motion, rotating in the opposite direction to the rest of the disk. NGC 7331 has a red shift showing a receding velocity of 816 +/- 1 km/sec. The other members of the group are the lenticular or unbarred spirals NGC 7335 and 7336, the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7337 and the elliptical galaxy NGC 7340. These galaxies lie at distances of approximately 332, 365, 348 and 294 million light years, respectively.
- Right Ascension: 22h 37m 05s, Declination: +34d 25m 13s (epoch 2000)
- Constellation: Pegasus
- Distance: 39.8 Mly
- Apparent magnitude: 10.4
- Apparent size: 10.5 x 3.7 arcmin
- Date: May thru July 2020
- Exposure: Lum: 7x600s=1.2h
- Instrument: RCOS 20 inch at f8.2 (fl=4116mm), SBIG ST8-XME (1 pixel=0.4509 arc-sec)
- Processing: PixInsight