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Local Group

Local Cluster

DesignationsLocal Group
ConstellationMultiple, but the Group's most prominent members are in Andromeda and Triangulum
Right AscensionNot applicable
DeclinationNot applicable
DistanceTo the central point of the Group (in Andromeda):
c. 1,470,000 light years
c. 450,000 parsecs
Diameterc. 10 million light years (c. 3 million parsecs)
MembersThree major galaxies, the Andromeda Galaxy, Milky Way and Triangulum Galaxy
At least fifty smaller members (and perhaps considerably more)
Optimum VisibilityThe primary galaxies of the Group are most visible in October / November

The group of galaxies extending out for approximately five million light years from the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way Galaxy, which together lie near its centre. With the Triangulum Galaxy, these three spirals are the largest galaxies in the group, but they are accompanied by more than fifty lesser galaxies. Many of these additional galaxies (none of which are themselves spirals) exist as satellites to the main three, and especially to the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies.

The Local Group is itself a part of an even larger collection of galaxies, the Virgo Supercluster, which extends outwards some ten times further than the Local Group and includes many other groups, most notably the Virgo Cluster some fifty million light years beyond the Local Group.

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