Sculptor Galaxy

The Sculptor Galaxy or Silver Dollar Galaxy (also known as NGC 253) is a bright spiral galaxy of Hubble type Sc in the constellation Sculptor. NGC 253 has an angular extent of 27 ' 5 x 6 ', 8 and an apparent brightness of 7.3 mag and is thus by Centaurus A and Messier 81, the third brightest galaxy outside the Local Group. However, the position of this galaxy in the sky is a little too far south to be well observed in Central Europe, so it is not included, despite their brightness in the Messier catalog. The galaxy was discovered by Caroline Herschel on September 23, 1783. NGC 253 is a well-known starburst galaxy.

The Sculptor galaxy is the brightest member of about 10 million light -years away Sculptor group of galaxies, which includes the galaxies NGC 55, NGC 247, NGC 300 and NGC 7793 belong.