Hickson 44 Group in Leo and other fuzzies

[John]

I've been enjoying the galaxies around Cancer and Leo this evening with my 12 inch dobsonian. More than a dozen picked out so far.

There are some nice ones around the "neck" of the Lion. I've seen NGC 3193 and 3190 between Algieba and Adhafera before but it was great to see them both in the same FoV again this Winter. Boosting the magnification to 199x (Ethos 8mm) enabled me to go that little bit deeper and also pick out 2 other members of the Hickson 44 group, NGC 3185 and 3187. The faintest of these (3187) is around mag 12.7 and only just visible with a little averted vision under tonights conditions. Nice to see all 4 of this group of distant galaxies - I've seen figures varying from 60 to 100 million light years for them

 

[John]

It got better and better in terms of transparency so I've been able to add another dozen or so galaxies to my tally including the Leo Triplet, M95 and 96 and friends plus a few in and around Ursa Major including M101 which can be a challenge under my skies. Actually picked out some spiral structure in M51 as well as it got high into the sky.

Good deep sky session all in all

[Geoff Barnes]

Sounds like fun John, I must have a go at some of those. I've only seen two galaxies with the Dob so far, Andromeda obviously but that is pretty hopeless from here crawling along the horizon. Also the Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253) which I chanced upon almost directly overhead one night whilst roaming the Milky Way, similar shape to M31 but much clearer to see up high.

[Davesellars]

Sounds like it was a good session!  Really clear skies and not too cold to boot I managed a good 5 hour session but I’ll write up a report tomorrow.

[Guest]

Hi John

I was attempting the Leo Triplet last night from Belfast (with not new, but greatly improved focuser !) Can just about spot  M65/66.  8 inch F6 newt. 

Hickson 44.  Can't find t in DSO Planner app.  Could you post its location if not too much bother. 

Thanks

Ciaran. 

[Paz]

That was a good session and shows what can be done. Last year when Leo/Coma Berenices/Virgo came around I was focusing mostly on double stars and neglected dso's. This year I'm going to try and sometimes get out to somewhere darker and do more dso's. 

[John]

5 hours ago, AstroCiaran123 said:

Hi John

I was attempting the Leo Triplet last night from Belfast (with not new, but greatly improved focuser !) Can just about spot  M65/66.  8 inch F6 newt. 

Hickson 44.  Can't find t in DSO Planner app.  Could you post its location if not too much bother. 

Thanks

Ciaran. 

This is from Stellarium. It shows the 2 brighter galaxies in this group:

 

[Guest]

Mag 11,  might be biting off more than I can chew ?.

Thanks  for chart. 

[AlexK]

On 26/02/2019 at 03:20, Guest said:

Hickson 44.  Can't find it in DSO Planner app. 

1

That's because Hickson is usually abbreviated to HCG "Hickson Group". Just search for "HCG 44" instead.

[Nyctimene]

Congrats, John, on your observation of the HCG 44 group - a very rewarding target!

Last year, Feb. 18th., I was able to make out all four members of HCG 44 under 5.2 mag skies, with my 8" f/4 Hofheim traveldob, 3187 as the faintest member only for seconds with averted vision, but definitely visible; all four of them with mag 133x within a field of 45 arc min diameter; very rewarding (posted the observation here in the Deep Sky section the same day: "An unexpected discovery"). Well worth a try for  12", 10" and even 8" owners!

Stephan

[Eastman]

Nice report John, galaxy time again?

[estwing]

Lovely stuff John and nice bag there.

Easy targets to locate for a galaxy hunter starting out, but for more experienced challenges close by await!.