NGC 6478 - 13.5 magnitude galaxy in Draco

[DarkerSky]

Having spent much of the evening (May 9) in Hercules I thought I'd nip across the border to Draco with stellarium and see what was on offer. NGC 6478 popped up on my screen at 14 magnitude. The sky was the darkest I have seen it for a long while, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Once I had got my star hopping distances right from Gamma Drac I scanned a small area of sky with a moderately high power (x215). After a couple of minutes a faint wisp of light passed through my vision. After losing it and then retracing my steps to find it again I managed to get a sketch.

I know very little about this galaxy. There are various quotes on the visual magnitude. I have found two sources though that quote 13.5 so I'll go with that.

It was certainly very faint in the EP. I did manage to detect that it was roughly an elongate oval of fairly even brightness. Other than that no other detail.

You will need to cup your hands over the screen to see this one !!

[Doc]

I sometimes find quick scanning of the area helps as you say suddenly something passes in your FOV, very faint but something defintely there. A little to dim for me from my skies but well done Seb in spotting and sketching it. It looks quite irregular going by your sketch.

[callisto]

Well done :)

Mark.

[DarkerSky]

Thanks for the comments. It was a bit difficult to get any real handle on the form of the galaxy, other than it being an oval shape