Two Cinderella sisters of M 31

[Nyctimene]

No, not M 32 or 110; those are conspicuous and well known members of the gravitationally bounded M 31 group (a subgroup of the Local Group). Phil Harrington's wonderful book "Cosmic Challenge" pointed me to the two unremarkable dwarf galaxies NGC 185 (9.3 mag) and 147 (9.4 mag) in Cas ( Small Scope Challenge; # 63; matches perfectly the number of my observations in 2022). The trusty Heritage 130 P Flextube was set up within five minutes; but the conditions were not favourable - NELM 4.9; M31 barely visible, Milky Way washed out. I started with 25x mag and 2.5° TFoV from M 31 moving towards Cas and arrived, star-hopping, soon at the star field. 185 was well positioned between two 8.5 stars and was visible as a large, diffuse patch of 6 arc min diameter, almost round, best with mags of 50-80x, first only with AV, later on directly. It's neighbour, just 1° to the W and in the same field of view was, despite the same brightness, way more difficult, due to the low surface brightness of just 14.2. I was able to make it out about 4 or 5 moments with averted vision within 15 mins of observing. So, all in all, most unspectacular objects. But, for me, the fun is chasing them down, and the knowledge I have or gain about their nature and dimensions - and that I'm privileged, to pay them a visit. And it's good, to be out under the stars again.

Attached Phil Harrington's drawing:

http://cloudynights.com/images/2018/2018-11_CC_files/sketch.jpg

Thanks for reading

Stephan

[mdstuart]

Yes that 147 is very tough unless conditions are perfect.

Enjoyed reading your post.

Mark

[Kon]

Excellent work with the 130p. Thanks for the report and interesting target.