Little Group in Pisces

[John]

After a frustrating few hours when band after band of cloud passed over, despite a clear forecast, and while others were seeing aurora,  the skies finally cleared towards the SW at around 11:30pm so I was able to get my 12" dob onto the Andromeda / Triangulum / Pisces area for a short while.

Limbered up with M31 / M32 / M110 and then onto M33 which was showing well. Wide expanse of hazy mottled light and hints of the spiral structure in one or two places. Last time I observed this was with a 20" dob but the view through my 12" was still quite pleasing and the H II area of NGC 604 within the galaxy popped easily into view without a need for a filter.

I checked my S&T Pocket Sky Atlas for a nearby target that I'd not seen and found that the galaxy NGC 315 in Pisces was not far away. The hunt for this magnitude 11.2 object was hampered initially by me not noticing that the sticky pads on my Rigel Quikfinder were giving way slightly so the finder was neither aligned with the scope or with my 8x50 RACI - that caused some confusion until I found out what was going on

Finders re-aligned, I managed to find the small round spot of light that is NGC 315 relatively easily. It's close to a magnitude 8 star. I boosted the power from 76x to 122x and examined the field around NGC 315 and picked up the fainter elongated patch of NGC 311 a little to the SW of 315. NGC 311 is magnitude 13 but was still visible with direct vision and in the same FoV as it's brighter companion. A little to the NE of NGC 315 I caught vague glimpses with averted vision of another slightly elongated patch which I think was NGC 318. Now this one was very, very hard to see even with averted vision and it turns out that it's magnitude 14.4. Thats really, really pushing my scope and back yard skies so I'm not surprised that I caught no more than glimpses during the best moments of transparency.

This little group has more members than this but they are tiny objects and around mag 15 or dimmer so beyond my scope. The group is around 205-219 million light years distant from us I believe and NGC 315 is a very large radio galaxy with a radio jet eminating from it.

New ones for me and my first DSO viewing session of October, albeit rather a short one

[Bart]

14.4 with a 12"? Very well done indeed John. Your skies must be very good. That is really excellent

Barry

[mdstuart]

Great report. I saw 315 a long time ago in my 10 inch but I must go back to find its friends!

Those galaxies must be in the Perseus Pisces wall I guess given the distance.

I was at Tyntesfield last night at the BAS public observing night.

[Mike73]

Some faint galaxies there John.

Frustrating conditions down here, just 5 to 10 minutes patches of good transparency at a time but still good to get out. 

[John]

Thanks for the feedback folks

The forecast seems OK for tonight so I'll try these again. I'd like to be a little more confident about NGC 318. Not that a mag 14 galaxy from a backyard with a 12" scope is ever going to be much more than a hint of something

I'll sort out new double sided tape for the Quikfinder today as well !

[estwing]

Great read and that fantastic work with the 12".

[laudropb]

Very nice report of a very productive short session. Good luck for tonight.

[mdstuart]

If I get out I will have a look tonight at this group with my 16 inch

[John]

If I get out I will have a look tonight at this group with my 16 inch

The forecast is OK but we have a layer of cloud here a the moment. It could clear though, as it did last night.

[Paul73]

I hope that a few people got out to have a look for these. Lovely clear sky here last night but health issues prevented observing. Looking forward to reading the reports.

Not only can John spot some really faint galaxies, but he also has really really big pockets.

Paul

[John]

.... he also has really really big pockets.

Yep - under my eyes after a couple of late nights !