Chris Schur, taken form Happy Jack, Arizona
While the Andromeda Galaxy is the closest major galaxy to the Milky Way, the irregular dwarf galaxy NGC 6822 — also known as Barnard’s Galaxy — is our nearest galactic neighbor, lying just outside our galaxy’s gravitational influence at a distance of 1.6 million light-years. It can be tough to observe, however, as it lies in Sagittarius, in the plane of the Milky Way. This image captured over two hours with an 11-inch Celestron RASA scope shows Barnard’s Galaxy obscured by bright galactic cirrus — wisps of cold dust in our own galaxy.