Galaxies 221 and 222

[mdstuart]

A lovely clear sharp night so out I went hunting again.

First was NGC 890. This was bright enough to just pick out in the 25mm wide angle lens. As usual the best view was in my 6.4mm meade super plossl. (what do others find best on faint small galaxies?). It was a nice oval shape. Well defined. I marked a few stars and the faintest visible was mag 14.1. The galaxy itself is mag 11.2 with a surface brightness of 12.7. It is found just under the Trianle of Triangulum which is now getting quite high up in the evenings.

This is how it looked but about 100 times fainter!

http://www.astrosurf.com/prosperi/glx/0890.jpg

Next I moved to a nearby galaxy NGC 949. This one appeared fainter and slightly larger to me. More dispursed and needed averted vision to pick up properly.

Here is an image of it. I can only see the four brightest stars here. The fourth brightest below and left of the galaxy is again mag 14.1.

Google Image Result for http://www.mafnet.jp/roman/astronomy_forum/image_files/observation/ngc0000/ngc949s.jpg

So another good haul of galaxies. I have discovered that my sky is much blacker to the east and overhead than to the south which must be Bristol. I can pick out these galaxies overehead or then in a line down to the east or north east but when they are in the SW even 25 degrees up they are much more difficult.

Talitha I may only get to 400 or so because of this factor....

Clear skies to you all..

Mark

[Doc]

Fantastic as always mark, you truly are an inspiration to us observers.

[acey]

Great stuff - and don't despair about your poor southerly view, Ursa Major has more galaxies than just about any other constellation in the sky (maybe even including Virgo), so even if you can only see to the north, you'll still have enough DSOs to keep you busy for a very long time!

[Sam]

There's some great galaxies in that area, thanks for posting about them. I usually start with a 26mm eyepiece to identify where the galaxy is and then use a smaller eyepiece - usually a 15mm to try and get some idea of detail. OOften is the galaxy is really faint then I have to stick with the bigger eyepiece.

Sam

[Talitha]

Well done Mark! Getting to 400 is a dream for many Amateurs.. you're doing just fine.

Like you, my best horizon is to the east and at the zenith. North is good too, and like Andrew said, there's lots of galaxies in UMa.

Small faint galaxies look best to me at low magnification in the 8" SCT. Like Sam, i start out low and then increase the power, but the smaller exit pupil of the stronger ep's often dim the view and it's necessary to back it down a bit.

If it's a really faint galaxy and i'm already at low power (62x, 32mm), there's a little trick which works quite well. After confirming the surrounding starfield, i tap the OTA a bit to make everything jump around a little. It's easier to detect a dancing galaxy than one that's sitting still.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Mark

Your list of galaxies is it based on a particular listing i.e Herschel 400 or is it self determined? Are we going to see the Stuart list of DSOs?

Wonderful report as usual.

Mark

[dobserver]

I always enjoy reading your reports Mark. Glad to hear your count is going up.

Steph