Hoag's Object
From Slackerpedia Galactica
Hoag's Object (a.k.a ) is a ring galaxy 600 million light-years away in the Serpens. It was named after its' discoverer, Art Hoag. It is smaller than our galaxy but quite beautiful. Astronomers think that another galaxy passed through this one at some time. The gravitational mayhem that ensued cleared out the center of this galaxy and then ignited new star formation in the ring around the edge.
Hoag's object is around magnitude 14 in brightness. In a large amateur telescope under dark skies it will look like a star with some slight fuzziness around it. With larger telescopes and/or a CCD camera, the fuzziness will expand and eventually look a bit like a donut.
This galaxy looks similar to HAL-9000.
External Links
A cool ASCII artwork of Hoag's Object from everything2.com
