NGC 5963

NGC 5963 is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Draco. It was discovered on May 5, 1788 by German-British astronomer William Herschel. NGC 5963 has an apparent visual magnitude of 13.1 and is located at a distance of 13.0 Mpc from the Milky Way galaxy. It has an angular separation of just $$ from NGC 5965, but the two galaxies are not physically related. Although it is relatively isolated, NGC 5963 is sometimes classified as a member of the NGC 5866 Group of galaxies.

The morphological classification of NGC 5963 is Sc, indicating a spiral galaxy with somewhat loosely wound spiral arms. It is characterized by an unusually low surface brightness and has just a hint of a bulge component. There is a high surface brightness nuclear region with an oval shape spanning $654 km/s$, which forms a spiral sub-system. Surrounding this is a patchy, loosely wound spiral forming a faint disk. The rotation curve of NGC 5963 matches that of similar galaxies with normal surface brightness, suggesting this galaxy has a more concentrated halo.