Mighty Pegasus looms large on late September and October nights, being rightly famous for its ‘Great Square’ that straddles the southern meridian at around midnight BST in late September. NGC 7479 (Caldwell 44), popularly named the ‘Propeller Galaxy’, is easy to locate, located just 3° south of Markab (alpha Pegasi), the star at the south-west (lower-right) corner of the Square. In late September from London, NGC 7479 transits the southern meridian (culminates) some 50° high at about 11.45pm BST. Unfortunately, it’s out of reach of 10 x 50 binoculars.
NGC 7479 is magnitude +11 object that spans 4.1’ x 3.2’ to its fullest extent and appears with a face-on orientation to our line-of-sight. It’s a challenging galaxy to observe through a small telescope, though a bright core should be seen through an 80mm (~3-inch) telescope, while a 100-150mm (4- to 6-inch) ‘scope show its pronounced bar surrounded by a 3’ x 2’ halo orientated north to south.
On a transparent and steady night some subtle mottling can be eked out, though you’ll need an aperture in the 300mm (12-inch) class to catch a glimpse of the central bar.
Imagers commonly produce superb images showing two major spiral arms sprouting from a north–south orientated bar; one extends north-eastwards and the other south-westwards and eventually they curve around to the south and north of the bar, respectively.
