Stephan's Quintet

[DeepSkyBagger]

As relief from the current relentless onslaught of cloudy nights, I've been looking back at my last observing session. On 20th September, I found myself under clear skies at a reasonably dark-sky site in the Lake District. There was a fairly heavy dew and no wind. I had a brief look up at the sky and the faintest star I could see was 63 Peg at mag 5.5. The Milky Way was clearly visible across the whole sky. There were plenty owls about, and from time to time I heard migrating geese passing overhead.

It turned out to be a good night, with observations being made of 27 deep-sky objects. This is one of my favourites from the night, as it was a first for me:

Stephan's Quintet is an interesting group of galaxies, both cosmologically and observationally. It was the first recognised compact galaxy group, and deep images show a wealth of interaction between the members of the group. My visual observations follow -

NGC 7317 - Small and round. Fairly bright. The middle is brighter and there may be a stellar nucleus.

NGC 7318A & 7318B - Not distinguishable from each other, these galaxies appear as a single object. Faint. Pretty large and elongated with a brighter central area. Visually very similar to its neighbour NGC 7320.

NGC 7319 - Very faint, pretty large and elongated. No sign of central brightening or any other structure.

NGC 7320 - not actually a member of the group, being a foreground object, it is faint, though pretty large and elongated with a brighter central area. Visually very similar to its neighbour NGC 7318.

NGC 7320C - Not seen (mag 16.1).

I have no idea whatever happened to NGC 7320B!

[cotterless45]

Neat and a lovely detailed drawing of an amazing group, well captured. Dark skies rule !

Nick.

[bish]

Nice sketch and report. Tricky little group to see.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great report and sketch. I managed the quintet through Olly's massive Dob last summer. Out of reach of my scope I am afraid

[Ruud]

A very good sketch indeed!

Thanks

[DeepSkyBagger]

Thank you all for your comments. Next up - Copeland's Septet!