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A one-object night - the Intergalactic Wanderer!

Andrew*

By Andrew*
in Observing - Reports

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Andrew*

Andrew*

Posted
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I had a list of 4 objects to observe last night, but the scottish weather had other plans for me and clouded me out after just one.

However, it was a challenging and rewarding one. The Intergalactic Wanderer, NGC2419 is a very distant globular situated right outside the main body of our galaxy, and the normal realm of globulars, in the constellation Lynx. At 300,000 light-years away and at magnitude 10.4, I wouldn't call it an easy object.

It took a while to star hop to, not being nearby any bright stars. At low magnification, there's a nice trio of mag. 7-8 stars almost in a line, which conveniently point to it. In my 12" scope at 182x it appeared as a faint round, slightly "smudgy" patch around 4' diameter. A few 13-14 magnitude stars surround it, but no stars were resolved in the cluster.

Great to imagine this very lonely huddle of stars drifting on their own, so far from their parent galaxy. In fact, it must be the loneliest non-galactic object available to the amateur astronomer! ;)

Andrew

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SiriusB

SiriusB

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Congratulations- i've heard its rather a tricky one to see.

mag 10.4 doesn't sound so faint Andrew,so i guess there's more to it than that.

What are the factors make it so tricky to see?

& having found it once, do you think you could spot it with your ed120 next time?-

Just wondering if its even worth a go with 120mm.

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Talitha

Talitha

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Well done, Andrew! ;)

Sorry the clouds cut your session short, hopefully you'll be able to stay out longer next time. :p

I saw 2419 early last March, and TBH it really wasn't difficult to find using the 120ST on the GEM. Starting on Castor with a wide fov ep, i slid up the RA with the Millennium Star Atlas as a guide. Haven't had a chance to see it with the 16"LB yet (darned clouds).

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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Congratulations- i've heard its rather a tricky one to see.

mag 10.4 doesn't sound so faint Andrew,so i guess there's more to it than that.

What are the factors make it so tricky to see?

& having found it once, do you think you could spot it with your ed120 next time?-

Just wondering if its even worth a go with 120mm.

Hi SiriusB, I said in my post "I would not call it an easy object", but in fact it's not a very hard object either. 10.4 is quite manageable with smaller instruments and good skies, so I could imagine just picking it up with my ED120 at a stretch.

Mike, your image is fantastic - well done. As is Carol's sketch of course. Especially for 120mm - just imagine what she could do with 16". ;)

Macavity - yes, it's location is very interesting. I read about it in Burnham's, which shows the same diagram. It's also amazing that there are no other globular clusters within 60° of NGC2419!

Andrew

Andrew

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DarkerSky

DarkerSky

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Superb capture Andrew. I got the Intergalactic Wanderer in an 8.5" scope last winter for the very first time. I remember the thrill of star hoping to it and getting it in the EP. As you say, it is a fair challenge.

I sketched it as a faint ball of light with a few fainter stars to its fringes, but i do remember that I lost it more than a couple of times from my FOV and could not locate it again without restarting my star hop route from Castor!

I'd say that it is probably a challenging object for apertures less than 6" under British skies.

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acey

acey

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Congratulations on your "one-object night", Andrew. That's one more than I've managed on many nights.:)

I've only ever viewed NGC 2419 once (in 2002 with an 8" dob), and it took me 2 attempts. First was in my light-polluted back garden (limiting mag 4.5), when I saw the distinctive line of stars you mention, but the object itself was completely beyond view. A few nights later I tried again from a dark site (limiting mag 6) and it was an easy object in the 8", quickly found using a low-power eyepiece. Just goes to illustrate the importance of sky quality when viewing DSOs.

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