Just outside the local group

[John]

Had a rather frustrating couple of hours with my ED120 refractor this evening. It was all looking promising but the clouds thickened up quite quickly and it's now raining

Managed a few glimpses of the usual late summer / early autumn targets including the brighter galaxies M31, M32, M110, M81, M82 etc, etc.

I did also have a look at a slightly more challenging galaxy not far from the famous ones in Andromeda. This was NGC 404 - AKA "Mirach's Ghost". This small, condensed 11th magnitude circular glow lies just 7-8 arc minutes north west of the 2nd magnitude Mirach (Beta Andromedae). It's nickname is well deserved because it can easily be taken for a faint ghost reflection of Mirach in the eyepiece. I found using a zoom eyepiece helped tease this galaxy out - it was much easier to see at around 120x than it was at 42x.

NGC 404 is a dwarf lenticular galaxy and lies just outside our local group of galaxies at 10 million light years distance. Apparently it is a bit smaller than the Small Megellanic Cloud but more luminous which is why we can see it though it's much further away than the SMC.

It can be quite a challenge in a smaller scope (sub 8 inches aperture say) in a less than dark or slightly opaque sky. I've seen it with my 100/102mm refractors as well though, on dark nights but using 100x or so really does help to positively ID the galaxy.

NGC 404 was the subject of Phil Harrington's "Cosmic Challenge" on the Cloudynights forum for November 2017. Here is his piece on it:

https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/column/phil-harrington-s/cosmic-challenge-ngc-404-r3118

Looks like the rain has stopped now so I might get out again

 

Edited October 1, 2021 by John

[John]

I've managed to see NGC 404 with my 100mm refractor tonight. 129x proved an effective magnification.

Not the best of conditions here so quite pleased although the galaxy was far from spectacular.

 

[Muc]

I will give this a go in a 120mm achromat, many thanks for the info

[Stu]

Nice one @John. Not one I’ve observed so will try to give this a go some time.

[Lurcher]

Great report John. I saw this for the first time myself on Friday the 1st October.

It's a beautiful sight isn't it? Mirach is such a beautiful golden yellow colour which is a really nice contrast to the faint and whitish grey smudge of NGC 404.

Thanks for posting. I haven't posted anything on here for ages, but your report has prompted me to. I've tried attaching my sketch of it, but not sure if it;s worked. Apologies if it hasn't. I'll try again in the sketching forum. 

Thanks again for posting.

[John]

7 minutes ago, Lurcher said:

Great report John. I saw this for the first time myself on Friday the 1st October.

It's a beautiful sight isn't it? Mirach is such a beautiful golden yellow colour which is a really nice contrast to the faint and whitish grey smudge of NGC 404.

Thanks for posting. I haven't posted anything on here for ages, but your report has prompted me to. I've tried attaching my sketch of it, but not sure if it;s worked. Apologies if it hasn't. I'll try again in the sketching forum. 

Thanks again for posting.

Lovely sketches !