NGC2903; Leo

[cotterless45]

A quick tour of the lion's belly and thigh picked out the lLeo galaxies M105,95,96,65 and 66 as being bright and clear.Just think of the lion sitting there, looks like he,s kicked Mars away with his back leg, ice cap was good.

On the map

NGC2903 is about where his tongue would stick out. Found it dropping down from the end star next to Eta, at x60.

Wow! It's bright, plenty of mottling,an offset core, elongated shape with a star in the foreground. At mag 9 , this is bright enough to stand out.

Really good galaxy spent a lot of time getting it at x100.It should be in the Messiers, nice.

Good hunting with the lion! Get off his backend and it's Virgo/Coma galaxy city,Nick.

[Double Kick Drum]

I was surprised how bright it was when I first saw it recently. I didn't quite see any mottling but a 5" in semi-rural skies is always gonna struggle with that.

It was also nice and easy to find.

There are three or four others that are probably worth looking at in Leo (if I get the chance). NGC 3628, NGC 3607 and NGC 3521 are all more luminous than mag. 10 and all have a decent average surface brightness.

They are also towards the back end of Leo!

[cotterless45]

Yo, gripped!

Also NGC426,3344,3227 and the double quasar NGC3190 (mag11). In Sextans NGC3169 and 3166 are two interacting galaxies."We're going to need a bigger boat!".

I think this is the friendliest most useful bit of the forum.

There's so much info shared, perhaps it's because we have such a difficult time seeing these!!! Clear skies,Nick.

[andrew63]

I must admit i tend to somewhat ignore these NGC objects - going for the 'glamour' of messier's fabled objects - which is a loss on my part. Will certainly be given them more attention though! NGC 2903 has a surface brightness of 13 so will wait till it's better placed in the sky...

andrew

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

NGC 2903 is better than many Messier objects. Under dark skies the bar spiral shape stood out really well in my C8. It is a bit weird that this is included in neither the Messier nor the Cladwell list. I hope to check out a couple of the others mentioned here coming week, before the moon gets too full.

Galaxy hunting time is upon us again!!

[Demonperformer]

Totally agree. How Charles and Patrick could both not include them amazes me. At least it got into the first Herschel 400 list.