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Targets for next clear night - two groups in LEO

mdstuart

By mdstuart
in Observing - Deep Sky

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mdstuart

mdstuart

Posted
Posted

Evening

Despite many years of observing I keep finding promising new targets.

I have identified two groups of galaxies that should be very possible in my 16 inch scope.

NGC 3947 and four friends. I think I have a fighting chance of seeing NGC 3937/40/43/47/54 all in the same FOV of my 16mm UWA lens. I have not seen any of these galaxies before so its a new area for me.

NGC 4005 and friends. I have seen 4005 before but missed the rest. Should be able to pick up 3987/93/97 and 4015/18/22/23 and maybe 4000.

So the next clear night I plan to try this lot and report back.

Do join me and see what you can make out and then we can compare notes.

Enjoy

Mark

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Posted
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3 hours ago, mdstuart said:

just need a clear night.

Mark

Nice list and I'm going to try for some of those in Galloway next week. 

As for viewing reports I'll expect to read them in 2020 as that seems to be when the next clear night is going to materialise? What's happened?

I have been looking at the Hickson 100 of late some of which I have touched on before. If the weather is kind in Galloway I shall try for a few as well as NGC2290 group to the north of Gemini.

Some super chart info as well Calvin :wink:

 

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mdstuart

mdstuart

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Good afternoon

So after storm Dorris cleared through we had some sparkly seeing so I had a go at the two groups.

Quote

NGC 3947 and four friends. I think I have a fighting chance of seeing NGC 3937/40/43/47/54 all in the same FOV of my 16mm UWA lens. I have not seen any of these galaxies before so its a new area for me.

NGC 3947 was not too hard to see but required averted vision. It is just next to two field stars, one of which is mag 14.7. So a good start. I realised I use my 7mm for pulling faint galaxies so this lot were more of a group of galaxies near to each other rather than five galaxies in one view!

Anyway on to NGC 3947 & 54 which were in the same FOV. NGC 3954 m14.4 was very small but easy enough to spot with averted vision within a triangle of stars. NGC 3947 was much harder despite the m13.9 figure. Very low surface brightness oval shape.

Finally NGC 3940/43. NGC 3940 was small and relatively easy to spot with averted vision. NGC 3943 was not possible despite a good clear sky and an elevation of just over 50 degrees az..

So 4/5 :happy11:

Quote

NGC 4005 and friends. I have seen 4005 before but missed the rest. Should be able to pick up 3987/93/97 and 4015/18/22/23 and maybe 4000.

This group was more compressed so I was able to get a view with three galaxies at once. NGC 4005 was the brightest but still was an averted vision oval object next to a field star. I managed to see NGC 3997 at m14.4 but it was small and tough. I also managed NGC 3987 but it was a very low surface brightness slither. I failed to see NGC 3993 and NGC 4000 which are m14.5 and m15.1.

I then moved a bit and picked out NGC 4015 which was on its own away from any field stars which made it harder to find.

Finally I found the small faint NGC 4022 but could not pick up the edge on NGC 4018 or NGC 4023.

So 5/9 this time. I need a bigger scope or darker skies!

Hickson 56 (the little group to the right in this image - yes stop looking at the monster galaxy!)

hickson 56.jpg

I also looked at a number of other objects, must make the most of the rare good seeing. I was quite surprised to just spot the fuzzy line that is Hickson 56. Really pleased with this observation!

So let me know how you get on with the NGC 3947 and NGC 4005 groups.

Mark

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alanjgreen

alanjgreen

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On 2/15/2017 at 20:33, mdstuart said:

I have identified two groups of galaxies that should be very possible in my 16 inch scope.

NGC 3947 and four friends. I think I have a fighting chance of seeing NGC 3937/40/43/47/54 all in the same FOV of my 16mm UWA lens. I have not seen any of these galaxies before so its a new area for me.

NGC 4005 and friends. I have seen 4005 before but missed the rest. Should be able to pick up 3987/93/97 and 4015/18/22/23 and maybe 4000.

Hi Mark and everyone else,

I got a decent night out under decent skies last night and as part of my plan for the night, I lined up Mark's chosen galaxies from the original post.

Equipment used was CPC1100 and Ethos21 eyepiece.

I had been outside for 3 hours before I moved onto the chosen galaxies so all equipment was cooled (as was I !)

 

First up - 3947, 3937, 3940, 3943, 3954

I centered on 3947 initially and there were no "obvious" galaxies to be seen. As I settled on the view I picked out 3947 but the others were elusive.

I then centered on all the NGC numbers in turn, and with a little left/right movement was able to pick them all up as "visible". I would not say that I saw any cores on them but the basic shapes were discernable.

 

Next - 4005, 3987, 3993, 3997, 4015, 4023, 4018, 4022

I centered initially on 4005, once my eye was steady I could pick out 3 galaxies in the FOV.

I then centered all the NGC in turn with the goto, then left/right movement revealed all but one of them (3993 was a fail).

4015 & 4023 made a good pair in a single FOV and were visible easily.

 

It was an enjoyable exercise and would be interested to repeat again in the future. At some point I will get my 20" and if galaxy season is still on then I will give them another try...

Alan

P.S. perhaps if we repeat this type of comparison in future, we could agree a set of properties to note down at each viewing then we will have something similar for comparison?

 

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mdstuart

mdstuart

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Alan

Thanks for your report back. Really interesting. I must try Ngc 4023 again.

It would be good to agree a consistent way to log our observations. I think we probably all use a similar sort of approach eg can you see it with direct vision. Only with averted vision, shape, nearby stars of note etc.

To be fair with these challenging objects just seeing them at all is an accomplishment!

Glad you enjoyed the challenge.

Mark

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