Hi everyone,
At around 5-million light years distance, this galaxy is one of the closest galaxies to us. Bright enough to be observed with binoculars under dark skies, NGC 55 is a Spiral-Barred type galaxy seen edge-on from our perspective. Glowing at a relatively bright Magnitude of 8.3, NGC 55 can be found in the southern constellation of Sculptor covering a large 27.5' x 5.6' arc-minutes of the sky. NGC 55 was first discovered by astronomer James Dunlop at Paramatta, New South Wales, Australia. This image is about 40' wide.
The second image is a 1x enlargement of NGC 55's core region. Dark matter appears as predominant dark lanes near the galactic centre and as blobs elsewhere along the galactic plane. Bright blue-white luminous regions are the signature of large nebulae and star forming regions. Particularly notable is the large nebulous region left of centre which is mottled with dark matter and most likely illuminated by bright new born stars.
There are higher resolution images and exposure details here
http://www.skylab.com.au/pmsa/ngc55.html
Paul M
P.S. to tornado33. Were you looking over my back fence last night ?
(you also posted a NGC 55 image ).
