IC 10 Irregular Galaxy in Cassiopeia?

[rwilkey]

Hi All, does anyone know if the above galaxy is visible in a telescope, if so, what power are we looking at, and what eyepieces, would I need a filter, if so, which one is best?

Any advice from anyone who has seen it would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

[acey]

I've never seen it, but the IC designation is an indication that it was missed by the Herschels, so that's a clue that it won't be easy.

It was discovered by Lewis Swift in 1887 using a 16" refractor. He described it as "Faint star involved in extremely faint, very large nebula". So it's a large, low surface brightness object. The large size means you shouldn't need huge aperture - a 12" should do it and a smaller scope may well manage it. However the low surface brightness means you'll need a very dark sky, and that will be the essential thing. You would find the field using a good map and low power eyepiece, get the exact spot, and raise power until you get the best view. It's a galaxy so filters of any kind are only going to make it dimmer.

Lewis Swift was very keen eyed, and he used a superb telescope at a pristine site. I've seen quite a lot of his discoveries and many of them are difficult objects, so IC10 sounds an interesting challenge if you've got the right sort of observing conditions.

IC11 is easier: it's another name for NGC 281, the "Pacman Nebula" also in Cassiopeia. It was discovered by Barnard in 1881 using a 5" refractor. That's one I've seen.

I would have suggested you check out the data at the NGC/IC Project but the site is currently down for some reason.

[rwilkey]

Hi Acey, thanks for your reply, I thought it would be difficult, I found the Pacman difficult for starters, anyway, it won't stop me trying. Thanks for your valuable comments.

[Superdavo]

According to stellarium, it's mag 10.3, and 5 arcminutes across. A nebula filter wouldn't help, but a light pollution filter may. It would probably appear at low power as a very faint fuzzy star, on a good dark night, but it would probably appear as a better fuzzy disc with more zoom. I've never seen it, but it should be possible in a 200p on a dark night, unlike most IC objects