A Satellite The Size of a Galaxy

And it appears it is a galaxy.

M110

This is M110. Although Charles Messier noted the existence of this galaxy in 1773, he didn't actually include it in his catalog. It was Kenneth Glyn Jones in 1967 that added it to Messier's catalog.

M110 is a satellite galaxy of the much larger M31 galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy. It appears to be a little farther away than M31, being about 2.69 Million light years. This is about a 1.5 hour exposure in total. It was also an unusual night in terms of seeing; the air was steadier than I have seen in a long, long time. It was also unusual in that the smoke from the relatively nearby (about 100 miles) forest fires had been blown out of our area. I wish I had stayed up longer! 

November 20, 2016 Extra

On the night of November 1, 2016 I imaged another Messier object, this time it was M76, also known as the Little Dumbbell Nebula in the constellation of Perseus. Some consider it to be the faintest and therefore most difficult object to see, visually, in the Messier catalog.

M76

If this is the Little Dumbbell, what is the Dumbbell Nebula? That one is known as M27, in the constellation of Vulpecula.

M76 is estimated to be about 2500 light years away. It is called a Bipolar Planetary Nebula.