Dwingeloo 1 is a barred spiral galaxy and member of the nearby Maffei 1 Group of galaxies. Despite its considerable size (about a third that of our own galaxy) and proximity (about 10 million light-years away) it remain undiscovered until 1994 because more than 99% of its visible light is absorbed by dust in the plane of the Milky Way. It was the first system to be found in the Dwingeloo Obscured Galaxy Survey carried out by astronomers at the Dwingeloo Radio Observatory in the Netherlands.