The Scarecrow (IC 1613)

IC 1613 was photographically discovered in 1906 by Max Wolf. Although that this Irregular Barred Dwarf galaxy in Cetus is shining at 9th magnitude, its light is spread across an area of sky about the size of a quarter Moon. This extremly low suface brightness is the reason IC 1613 escaped from beeing discovered earlier.

IC 1613 lies 2.3 million light-years distant, so it is as far as M31 and member of the Local Group, and its diameter measures 12'400 light-years. Its interior looks streched, fragmented, shorn and tattered from gravitational interractions in the past. The spatial distance from Andromeda Galaxy is nearly 2 million light-years which is far too great to be considered to be closly related.

Long exposure was needed to bring out some details of the galaxy and its HII region. North is up in this image.

[from O'Meara]