NGC 247, Cetus

An intriguing galactic neighbour to us is NGC 247 at just 11 million light years away in the direction of Cetus, the sea monster. A member of the Sculptor group alongside NGC 253 and about a dozen much fainter members, it is an intermediate spiral galaxy with a core of old yellow stars and a disk rich in young, blue star clusters and red star-forming regions. Most notable, however, is the unusual void that contains some old red stars, but none of the young blue stars found elsewhere in its disk. The reasons why the void is present are not clearly understood.

To the left of NGC 247 is "Burbidge's Chain of Galaxies", a string of spiral galaxies roughly 300 million light years away.