NGC 1087

NGC 1087 or St Nikola's prayer is an intermediate spiral galaxy in Cetus. The central bar/core is very small with many irregular features in the surrounding disk of material. With the many strange features of NGC 1087, its true nature is still uncertain. It has an extremely small nucleus and a very short stellar bar. Unlike most barred galaxies, the bar apparently has some new star-formation taking place. There is a multiple spiral structure defined more by the dust lanes than by luminous matter. Overall, the disc has a very low surface brightness. Even though it appears close to another galaxy (NGC 1090), these two galaxies are not interacting and should be considered isolated from one another.

NGC 1087 lies near the small M77 (NGC 1068) galaxy group that also includes NGC 936, NGC 1055, and NGC 1090. However, because of its distance, it probably is not an actual group member.

The galaxy is located about 15.85 ± 2.24 Mpc (52 ± 7 million light years) away.

One supernova has been observed in NGC 1087: SN 1995V (type II, mag. 15).