Date:  July 21, 2012
Location: Shot Rock at 7600 feet
NELM: 7.0 throughout the night
Transparency: started at 3/5, but improving to 4/5 by midnight.  The Cygnus Milky Way was sugary.
Seeing: Average at 3/5

Telescope: 22” f/4.0 reflector on a Blandin equatorial platform
Eyepieces:   24mm Panoptic (finder eyepiece), 10 and 6mm ZAO-II’s, 10 and 6mm Delos and TMB 1.8ED Barlow

All object parameters in parenthesis are listed in RA, Dec, size and listed magnitude without commas.
All images are from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

I was pretty tired when I got there, so I've observed several trios before I quit.

CGCG 46-17 trio 

22” (230 and 383x) – Three collinear trio of galaxies aligned SW-NE with a blazing mag 7.2 star on the NE end, sitting about 2.2’ away.  Each galaxy is about 1.5’ apart.

CGCG 46-17  13 57 47.7  +07 23 45   0.9x0.7’  14.8 – The SW end galaxy is considerably faint, round glow with diffuse edges.  A brighter round compact nucleus was detected.  About 0.4’ across with a 0.1’ core. 

MAC 1357+0724   13 57 52.3   +07 24 46   0.6x0.2’   16.0 – The middle member is much smaller than CGCG 46-17, yet has the same surface brightness.  2:1 elongated glow with defined edges.  PA = 45 degrees and 0.2x0.1’ in size.

UGC 9103 trio  

22” (230, 255 and 383x) – nice very compact trio of galaxies occupying a space spanning 1.2’  A pair of very compact high surface brightness galaxies, both MCGs, about 0.25’ apart aligned roughly NE-SW forming a parallelogram with a pair of 14^th magnitude stars to the east.  The lone galaxy, the UGC, lies 1.2’ due west.

UGC 9103  14 13 42.0  +08 13 13   1.0x0.1’   16.0 – Very faint small round even surface brightness glow with diffuse edges.  0.2’ across.

MCG +1-36-24  14 13 45.7  +08 13 08   0.5x0.3’   14.7  - Considerably faint very small round high surface brightness glow with well-defined edges.  About 0.2’ across.

MCG +2-36-57   14 13 46.5   +08 13 16   0.5x0.4’   16.4 – This appears the same as the above.  Also 0.2’ across.  The odd thing is that the listed magnitude is almost 2 mags apart and it is clearly misquoted.  I’d put it closer to mag 15.

UGC 8987 trio   KTG 53

22” (230 and 383x) – a widely spaced trio of galaxies almost in a line spanning 8.2’ from end to end and aligned ESE to WNW. 

UGC 8987   14 04 18.9   +16 19 41   2.0x0.4’   14.7p – This galaxy is by far the dimmest of the trio.  Extremely faint amorphous glow with diffuse edges.  Size is about 0.2’ across.  This on the WNW end

MCG+3-36-38   14 04 27.5   +16 18 12   0.5x0.4’   14.8 – This middle member is considerably faint slightly elongated glow with a slightly brighter core.  0.2’ long and PA = 45 degrees

MCG+3-36-43   14 04 50.0   +16 16 55   0.7x0.5’   15.6 – Very faint very diffuse round glow.  Even surface brightness throughout.  0.3’ across.  This sits on the ESE end.  A mag 11.3 star lies 2.7 ENE.

IC 962 trio   KTG 51

22” (230 and 383x) – Fairly compact group of three galaxies occupying a rough line spanning 3.2’ long. 

IC 962   13 57 13.3   +12 01 18   0.7x0.5’   14.2p – Considerably bright round glow with well-defined edges.  Bright round core.  About 0.3’ across.

MCG+2-36-2   13 57 13.9   +11 59 50   0.8x0.3’   15.0p – Considerably faint 2:1 elongated glow with a slightly brighter round nucleus.  PA = 150 degrees and 0.4’ long  by 0.2’across.

MCG+2-36-4   13 57 19.2   +11 58 33   0.4x0.4’  15.2 – Very faint small round even surface brightness glow with diffuse edges.  About 0.3’ across.

MAC 1450+5047 trio  

22” (230, 383 and 690x) – This very compact trio of two labeled galaxies with one uncharted member.  Only two were detected at 690x.  This trio is only 40 arc seconds long.  The southern one was not seen as it was listed as g magnitude of 19.9 per the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS).

MAC 1450+5047   14 50 16.4  50 47 36   0.3x0.3’   16.5 (g mag = 16.46 SDSS) – Very faint very small round glow with a very faint almost stellar core.  About 0.1’ across.

MAC 1450+5047A   14 50 17.0   +50 47 19   0.5x0.3’   16.5  (g mag = 15.95 SDSS) – Very faint small round glow with diffuse edges.  Very faint nearly stellar core detected in the center. A little larger than the above galaxy, about 0.15’ across.

Uncharted   14 50 17.2   50 47 00  0.1’x0.1  - (g mag = 19.92 SDSS) – not seen

CGCG 225-14 trio   KTG 66

22” (230 and 383x) – Nice trio of galaxies arranged in a 30-60-right triangle.   The two at the short side are about equal brightness while the one at the 30 degree angle is about 75% dimmer.  A nearby MAC galaxy is not too far, about 2.7’ SW from CGCG 225-14.

CGCG 225-14   16 57 26.7   +40 44 08   1.1x0.4’   15.2 – Considerably faint small round glow with defined edges.  Even surface brightness halo with a slightly brighter round nucleus.  0.2’ across.

CGCG 225-16   16 57 39.8   +40 42 25   0.5x0.4’   15.0 – Considerably bright round glow with a brighter nucleus.  Well defined edges.  0.2’ across.

CGCG 225-17   16 57 40.6   +40 43 21   0.5x0.5’   15.0 – Considerably bright round glow with a nearly stellar core.  Defined edges and about 0.2’ across.

Nearby galaxy, MAC 1657-4042  16 57 14.7  +40 42 39   0.6x0.2’  16.0, is very faint, small 2:1 elongated glow with somewhat diffuse edges.  About 0.2x0.1’ and PA = 90 degrees.