UGC 5470 (Leo I) is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy, orbiting our galaxy at a distance of around 820,000 lightyears. It is thought to be the most distant and youngest of such satellite galaxies, only discovered in 1950. It is around 2000 lightyears in diameter and unusually for this type of galaxy, has a black hole at its centre.
At magnitude 11.2 it should be easy to image, but this is complicated by the fact that Regulus, one of the brightest stars in the sky, is only 12 arcminutes away. Regulus is a quadruple star system around 79 lightyears distant, with a combined magnitude of 1.35
This RGB image is the result of 10h of data capture from Horsham, over 7 evenings in February and March 2025. A ZWO ASI2600 MM Pro camera was used, through an 8-inch Teleskop-Service Ritchey-Chretien reflector.
Date: 24/03/2025
Location: Horsham, West Sussex
Photographer: Graham Wilcock
