Ghost of Zosma

[acey]

Uranometria marks a galaxy very close to the star Zosma (delta Leonis). The well-known "ghost of Mirach" (NGC 404 in Andromeda) lies a similar distance from a comparably bright star, so I thought I'd give the "ghost of Zosma" a go.

It is much more of a challenge, though. From my mag-6 site, Mirach's ghost is easy at low power in my 12-inch dob but Zosma's (NGC 3588) is listed as 15th magnitude, and while I would have judged it a couple of magnitudes brighter than that, I needed to put in a high-power eyepiece and get Zosma out of the field before the little smudge came into view. Worth a try with appropriate aperture and sky conditions: the DSS image (from The Interactive NGC Catalog Online) gives an idea of what you're up against.

[DarkerSky]

Crickey..!! Now that is a challenge. I think I will need it darker than 5.2 to pull that out. I'm tempted to give it a go though, but realistically I think it is one for the list when I get out to a darker site

[Doc]

I've tried for both in the past. The Ghost of Mirach is easy in my 16" dob under light polluted skies but Ngc 3588 is impossible to see under my skies. I've tried placing Delta Leo out of the FOV but still no way.

Good luck whoever tries this one.

[lunator]

Acey

Good catch.

I wouldn't have a hope from my location

Cheers

Ian

[DarkerSky]

Just spent a half hour searching for this at the end of my obsy session. In my 16" at Mag x295 I can see a couple of candidates. One looks quite stellar, about mag 13-ish very close into Zosma on its northern side. I would say no more than about 8-10 arc seconds from Zosma. The other ""could"" be a faint wisp of light on the south side, but really could not confirm it. LM of my sky is 5.1/5.2

[acey]

The other ""could"" be a faint wisp of light on the south side

It's 8 arcmins south of Zosma, so the faint wisp was your best candidate.