Galaxy 225 & 226 - NGC 63 & 750

[mdstuart]

Very cold tonight despite two of everything on!

Two new additions to my collection (nearly as exciting as collecting match attack cards..) NGC 63 and NGC 750. Both were tough despite a sharp clear sky.

NGC 63 was your typical oval shaped unmistakable galaxy smudge.

NGC 750 was even more challenging. It took a while before I located it with the 9mm Ortho. It seemed long and thin to me. As is always the case I went inside and its actually 2 galaxies in contact with each other NGC 750/1 and hence the appearance of being long and thin. I will now go back to it again and check!

So Imagers have a go at NGC 750/1..see what detail you can capture!

I did go back to NGC 23 with the 4mm Ortho and definitely two points of light. One is the galaxy and one a mag 13.7 star.

After galaxy hunting I did check out a few old favorites including M1 and the elusive E star in the trapezium.

Time to warm up!

Mark

[acey]

Great stuff. 750/51 is a very nice find, a pair of interacting ellipticals also known as Arp 166 or the "dumbell galaxy". Not on Herschel 400 because the members are individually too faint (13+) though the combined magnitude is more like 12. Some images here: Your NED Search Results

There's a list of brightest Arps here: Arp Galaxies in the Revised Shapley-Ames Catalog and lots of Arp links (including images) here: Arp's Catalog Of Peculiar Galaxies

[mdstuart]

Thanks for the feedback, I plan to have another look tonight with the 4mm Ortho to see if I can see that it is two incredibly faint marks or just the one!

Mark

[DarkerSky]

Excellent stuff ... there's nothing quite like the thrill of tracking down elusive DSO's

[mdstuart]

So tried again tonight. It looks like a single long galaxy in the 9mm and 6mm Orthos. With the 4mm it is so faint I almost loose it.

So no it looks like one object to me.

What about you 16 inchers can you split it at high power with more light.

I expect that Perez chap can do it with a 4 inch refractor in Hawaii!

Mark

[DarkerSky]

that sounds like a challenge..!

will need a darker sky though. It's on my list now

[yeti monster]

E star in the trapezium? Last night I was so sure that I could see 5 stars, but put it down to ice forming on my eyeball!