NGC 5907, known as the Splinter Galaxy or Knife Edge Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Draco seen almost perfectly edge-on, discovered by William Herschel in 1788.
Click the image to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · hover to see it annotated · open full resolutionAnnotated image · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolutionSky location chart · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolution
NGC 5907, known as the Splinter Galaxy or Knife Edge Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Draco seen almost perfectly edge-on, discovered by William Herschel in 1788. It lies about 46.5 million light-years away, with an angular size of roughly 12.7 by 1.4 arcminutes corresponding to a true diameter of around 173,000 light-years, giving it its extremely thin, needle-like profile. Deep imaging has revealed faint, looping stellar streams extending more than 150,000 light-years beyond the visible disk, the tidal remnant of a smaller dwarf galaxy torn apart and absorbed by NGC 5907 roughly four billion years ago. While the bright central disk is a straightforward broadband target, capturing the much fainter surrounding tidal streams requires considerably longer integration time and a dark sky.
[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_5907]
Annotated Image
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Sky Location
The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.
Image Details
| Moon Phase: | Waxing Gibbous |
|---|---|
| Camera: | Seestar S30 Pro (4K Sony IMX585 sensor) |
| Optics: | 160 mm focal length, f/5.3, 30 mm aperture (APO quadruplet) |
| Date: | 2026-04-28 |
PixInsight Processing
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