Stunning galaxy triplet - NGC 3607, NGC 3608 and NGC 3605

[DarkerSky]

Just had an amazing evening in Leo, pushing the boundaries of my 16" scope. The sky was as good as it gets here, transparency excellent. Went galaxy hunting again and hit the jackpot with a stunning triplet in the same FOV at Mag x215 - so that's quite a tight FOV as you might imagine!

NGC 3607 was the brightest of the 3 galaxies at Mag 10. It was distinctly round with a beautifully bright central core. NGC 3608 was slightly fainter and smaller and again fairly round, although there did seem to be a slight elongation to it along a roughly W-E orientation. A brighter core was visible, but nowhere near as bright as NGC 3607. Dreyer has NGC 3608 listed as Mag 11.

Topping off the view was a much fainter patch of light lying close in to the south of NGC 3607. Using stellarium I identified this third fuzzy in the field as NGC 3605. This one was more indistinct although appeared fairly round. No real detail came through, but listed as a magnitude 13 galaxy I am well chuffed to see it !! It is the faintest object I have seen with this scope under the sky I have. Really very excitied about that !!!!

I spent some time sketching the triplet. Sketches up soon

[Doc]

Amazing find DS. I have no chance from my skies will have to wait till I get to a dark site. As you say a mag 13 galaxy must be right on the limit of your dob so well done in seeing this.

[DarkerSky]

It was a stunning capture Mick. I'm still brimming with excitement about it, and have triple-checked with stellarium to make sure I got positive ids !!

My LM is generally 5.2 at best. The transparancy has been excellent these past couple of nights, and as I approached midnight the sky did seem to darken a bit more - quite possibly as most of the houses in my immediate vicinty were dark as people were all in bed !!

Having seen a Mag 13 galaxy, and quite obviously too - didn't have to use averted vision - I feel that there is still some spare capacity there. A favourable galaxy at Mag 13.5 or 14 could be in reach at high mags if everything clicks. I think at a dark sky site of LM 6 getting down to mag 14 should be a doddle

Sketch now up in the sketching forum

[Space Bat]

Oh to have a big Dob, its no mean feat DS being so close to Luton.

It must provide some stunning views when in darker skies?

Nice report.

Chris