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WOW - like galaxies? read this

mdstuart

By mdstuart
in Observing - Deep Sky

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mdstuart

mdstuart

Posted
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So after any years of observing you think you must have seen the best by now.

Last night blew me away. FIVE yes FIVE galaxies in the FOV that are much easier than the Stephens Quintet.

Why oh why is this not as famous.

The Webb Society magazine was my inspiration. Not expecting much from my home location I pointed the scope and

BANG...a large fuzzy mess...the NGC 708 group in Andromeda. Here is a pic off the internet.

post-1454-0-28820500-1444759357.jpg

I could see the Y shaped group of five galaxies. NGC 703 / 704 and 708 are immediately visible but 705 is tougher needing patience and high power. 709 was also just possible with averted vision. What is more 703 has an embedded star that is only possible with AV. Looks like a supernova but is not of course.

So come on then, give this a go.,,,,John will have it with his 12 inch I am sure as its easier than that Quintet.

Enjoy

Mark

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Piero

Piero

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Very interesting!

It is amazing that there are so many targets out there that one doesn't have to worry about finishing the list of possible targets, assuming the aperture is larger enough! 

You said that 705 is tougher needing patience and high power. Why is high power necessary for viewing a faint object? Is it because that specific target works more like a point source or is there another reason? I believed galaxies required medium-low power to be seen, but it seems this is not the case... 

Thanks in advance, 

Piero

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John

John

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Oooh !! - thanks Mark, I'll get onto that lot next time I'm out :smiley:

Piero - I can't explain the science but I've found that small faint fuzzies are just that bit easier to spot with some additional magnification, sometimes a lot of additional magnification !

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Paul73

Paul73

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Thanks Mark

You have just ruined my evenings viewing. I'm now going to spend most of the night straining to see a handful of objects too faint for my scope / sky / eyes.

At least I will have NGC752 & 891 to keep me happy just to the left.

Paul

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acey

acey

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Nice group. Another to try in Andromeda (and a particular favourite of mine) is the NGC 68 group, which has 6 NGC galaxies. I first viewed it with an 8 inch, though I couldn't separate the members. With a 12" I could. There are certainly many groups that are easier and nicer to look at than Stephan's Quintet, which is famous for astrophysical reasons (discordant redshift) mroe than appearance, though a Palomar photo (used in the movie It's A Wonderful Life) did help boost the Quintet's renown.

As to magnification, you need it in order to make things big enough to see. These faint little NGCs are tiny compared with the familiar Messiers. Always assuming first of all that the sky is dark enough to begin with, of course.

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mdstuart

mdstuart

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Thanks everyone for the feedback.

NGC 68...Yes I could see two of the six in that little group with my 16 inch...Perhaps on a better night I should go back to that one.

Tonight I thought I might try ABEL 347 just next to NGC 891.. :laugh:

Mark

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John

John

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Tonight I thought I might try ABEL 347 just next to NGC 891.. :laugh:

Have you got clear skies yet Mark ?

It's still about 98% cloud covered here :clouds1:

I've got the dob out but I'm starting to wonder why ....

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YKSE

YKSE

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Excellent observation Mark :smiley:  and thanks for the heads up,  I'll have a go on this group when I get a clear sky in the coming days.

Very interesting!

It is amazing that there are so many targets out there that one doesn't have to worry about finishing the list of possible targets, assuming the aperture is larger enough! 

You said that 705 is tougher needing patience and high power. Why is high power necessary for viewing a faint object? Is it because that specific target works more like a point source or is there another reason? I believed galaxies required medium-low power to be seen, but it seems this is not the case... 

Thanks in advance, 

Piero

As acey has explained, our eyes need  to see a certain size to distinguish these tiny galaxies from stars. R.N. Clark's "VISUAL ASTRONOMY OF DEEP SKY" has more details, this link is of good guide for me :smiley: 

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Tinker1947

Tinker1947

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There are quite a few PGC (roughly 12)listed galaxies with in 1/2 degree of NGC 705 the little fuzzy just above and slightly right of 705 is PGC197603 Mag 17.7, slightly further right  all most level is UGC1336 Mag15.7 that's a nice bunch you have show maybe they should take your name...

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Piero

Piero

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As acey has explained, our eyes need  to see a certain size to distinguish these tiny galaxies from stars. R.N. Clark's "VISUAL ASTRONOMY OF DEEP SKY" has more details, this link is of good guide for me :smiley: 

Thanks Acey & Yong!

I will keep it in mind when the much easier Messier galaxies in Leo / Virgo will come up next spring.  :rolleyes:

I'll stop here as don't want to derail the OP's thread. 

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John

John

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I had a go at the group in the photo Mark posted tonight with my 12" dob.

Conditions OK but not ideal - NELM seemed to vary between 5 and 5.5 perhaps ?

Thin cloud intervening from time to time too.

Not much definite to report but I'm fairly sure I could see the brightest in the photo - NGC 704 perhaps ?. Vague hints of others perhaps but nothing that I'd make any claims about.

While in the vicinilty I did manage to find NGC 687 and NGC 679 which were new to me and both could be held with direct vision. NGC 687 is mag 13.0 I think and 679 12.4. Both around 220 million light years off I think. Neither shown in the S&T Pocket Sky Atlas as it happens but Stellarium helped out :smiley:

The transparency seemed to vary almost from minute to minute tonight. Probably some thin, high cloud that I could not see with my naked eye drifting around. I found quite high power (122x and 199x) was the best for getting the darkest background sky and winkling these faint patches out of it.

Still, I was out and observing for a couple of hours, which was nice :smiley:

NB: Further research suggests that NGC 703 is more likely to be what I saw rather than 704. Have to have another look under better skies I think !

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