Date:  June 1, 2013

Location: Blue Canyon at 5200 feet

NELM: 6.5 – 6.7  (zenith)

Transparency: 3/5

Seeing: 3/5

Telescope: 22” f/4.0 reflector sitting on a Crossbow EQT-200 equatorial platform

Eyepieces:  24mm Panoptic (finder eyepiece), 10 and 6mm ZAO-II’s, 12, 8 and 6mm Delos and TMB 1.8x ED barlow

This was one of the best nights at Blue Canyon in recent history.  Continued my work on observing the remaining galaxy trios on my list.  Many are from the KTG catalogue. 

All object parameters in parenthesis are listed in RA and Dec without commas.

Images are from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey or the Digital Sky Survey

NGC 5209 trio  (13 32 35.0   +07 19 15)

22” f/4 (192, 230, 287 and 383x) – A trio of NGC galaxies sitting next to a trio of CGCG galaxies to the east. 

NGC 5208  (1.6 x 0.5’   14.1p) –  Bright 5:2 elongated patch with a much brighter similarly elongated center cumulating in a nearly stellar core.  Defined edges.  0.9’ long and PA = 165  I didn’t see the MAC galaxy to the NW.

NGC 5209  (1.2 x 1.0’   14.0p)  – Bright slightly elongated glow with a nearly stellar core.  Diffuse edges.  0.7 x 0.5’ and PA = 120.  3.7’ slightly north of east from NGC 5208.

NGC 5212  (0.6 x 0.2’   15.5) – Faint 3:2 elongated soft even surface brightness glow.   0.2’ long and PA = 90.  1.7’ SE from NGC 5208.

Nearby galaxies:

CGCG 45-11  (0.4 x 0.2’  15.5) – Very faint small round glow.  Even surface brightness.  0.2’ across.

CGCG 45-12  (0.4 x 0.2’  15.4) – Considerably faint small round glow.  Even surface brightness.  0.2’ across.

CGCG 45-14  (0.5 x 0.4’  15.4) – Very faint small round glow.  Even surface brightness.  0.2’ across.

NGC 5566 trio – KTG 54  (14 20 17.7   +03 58 23)

22” f/4 (287 and 383x) –

NGC 5560  (4.3 x 1.2’)  – Considerably bright 4:1 glow with a slightly brighter elongated center.  Defined edges.  I didn’t see the extensions.  1.1’ long and PA = 100

NGC 5566  (6.7 x 2.1’   11.5b) – Very bright 2:1 glow with defined edges.  Nearly boxy brighter core.  Extremely faint extensions detected, more on the north side than the south side.  The bright part is 1.7’ long.  The north extension is about 0.8’ long and the south extension is half the length.  PA = 15

NGC 5569  (2.5 x 1.3’   13.9p) – Very faint round diffuse even surface brightness glow.    0.4’ across.

NGC 5576 trio – KTG 55  (14 21 07.1  +03 20 29)

22” f/4 (192 and 287x) –

NGC 5576  (3.9 x 2.6’   11.0v) – Very bright 3:2 elongated patch with a much brighter center.  Defined edge.  1.1’ long and PA = 90

NGC 5574  (2.2 x 1.3’   12.4v) – Bright 3:1 elongated with a brighter center.  Defined edge.   0.7’ long and PA = 60

NGC 5577  (5.7 x 1.0’   13.1p) – Faint even surface brightness 3:1 elongated glow with diffuse edges.  1.6’ long and PA = 60   

NGC 5638 trio  (14 29 48.1  +03 14 13)

22” f/4 (192, 230, 287 and 383x) –  

NGC 5638  (2.7 x 2.4’  11.2v) – Very bright round glow with a much brighter center  Defined edges.  1.1’ across

NGC 5636  (2.0 x 1.4’  13.7p) – Considerably faint slightly elongated even surface brightness glow.  Diffuse edges.  Extremely faint stellar core.  0.9’ long, PA = 60

UGC 9310  (2.6 x 0.6’  14.5p) – Very faint diffuse thin “jet” emanating northwards from mag 12.6 star.  0.5’ long.

IC 1071 trio  (14 54 14.4  +04 47 40)

22” f/4 (192, 230, 287 and 383x) –   Collinear trio of galaxies arranged in north to south.

IC 1071  (1.0 x 0.7’  14.2p) – Considerably bright round glow with defined edges.  Stellar core. 0.5’ across

IC 1072  (0.7 x 0.4’  15.3) – Considerably bright round glow with defined edges.  Nearly stellar core.  0.3’ across.  Smaller than IC 1072 but similar surface brightness.

IC 1073  (0.4 x 0.3’  15.6) – Faint small round compact glow, even surface brightness.  0.2’ across.  A mag 12.2 star lies 4.6’ due east.

NGC 5619 trio – KTG 57  (14 27 26.8  +04 48 03)

22” f/4 (287 and 383x) –  

NGC 5619  (2.1 x 1.1’  13.4p) – Considerably bright 5:2 elongated glow with diffuse edges.  Nearly stellar core surrounded by a much brighter compact round center.  1.7’ long and PA = 10.  A 16 mag star is just off south tip.

UGC 9258  0.8 x 0.7’  14.7p) – Considerably faint small round glow.  Even surface brightness.  0.2’ across.  A pair of mag 16 stars lies just 0.3’ east. 

IC 4424  (1.0 x 0.3’  15.0p) – Considerably faint 2:1 glow with defined edges.  Nearly stellar core.  0.5’ across and PA = 110.  15^th mag star just 0.2’ south.

NGC 5736 trio – KTG 58  (14 43 37.4  +11 10 42)

22” f/4 (383x) –

NGC 5736  (1.1 x 0.7’  14.7) – Considerably bright 3:2 elongated glow with defined edges.  Brighter center.  0.6’ across and PA = 90

UGC 9490  (1.2 x 0.1’  15.5p) – extremely faint thin glow.  A mag 11 and 12 double star is just NW from the east tip making it a bit harder to see this galaxy.  PA = 80 and 0.5’ long.  A rough parallelogram of mag 12 to 15 stars is to the east.

CGCG 76-9  (0.6 x 0.3’  15.2p) – Considerably faint slightly elongated even surface brightness glow.  0.2’ across and PA = 120.

CGCG 140-2 trio  (17 14 24.9  +23 04 11)

22” f/4 (383x) –

CGCG 140-2  (0.8 x 0.3’  15.5) – Faint 3:1 elongated patch with defined edges.  0.5’ long and PA = 135.

CGCG 140-3  (0.4 x 0.3’  15.3) – Considerably faint round patch with a nearly stellar core.  Defined edges and 0.1’ across.

MAC 1714+2305 – Faint small round glow.  Even surface brightness.  0.1’ across.

UGC 10987 trio  (17 48 20.3  +17 56 53)

22” f/4 (383 and 690x) – Very close double galaxy with a third member just 0.5’ west. 

UGC 10987  (0.5 x 0.4’  15.1) – Faint 2:1 elongated glow, not resolved from “Uncharted A”.  0.3’ across,

Uncharted A  (- -) – Not seen.  Should try again at even higher powers under steady seeing. 

Uncharted B  (0.4 x 0.4’  16.34) – Faint very small round glow.  0.1’ across.  0.5’ west of UGC 10987.

NGC 5911 trio – KTG 60  (15 20 24.5  +03 28 55)

22” f/4 (287 and 383x) – A fairly close pair with a third member quite a ways to the SE.

NGC 5911  (1.0 x 0.7’  14.7) – Bright round glow with a much brighter very small center.  Defined edges.  0.5’ across.

CGCG 49-134  (0.5 x 0.2’  15.7) – Considerably faint round small even surface brightness  glow.  0.2’ across.

CGCG 49-135  (0.5 x 0.4’  15.4) – Considerably faint 3:2 elongated even surface brightness glow with diffuse edges.   0’3 across and PA = 110

Nearby galaxy:

MAC 1520+0328  (0.3 x 0.2’  16.0) – Very faint round small glow.  Even surface brightness 0.1’ across.  3.8’ SW from NGC 5911

UGC 9829 trio – KTG 61  (15 22 59.1  -01 21 51)

22” f/4 (383x) –

UGC 9829  (2.1 x 0.8’  14.2p) – Considerably faint small slightly elongated glow.  Even surface brightness.  0.4 x 0.3’ and PA = 0.  No other detail seen.  I’ll try again.

CGCG 21-81  (0.4 x 0.3’  16.1) – Very faint small round even surface brightness glow.  0.2’ across.  Slightly fainter than CGCG 21-83. 

CGCG 21-83  (0.4 x 0.4’  15.7) – Very faint small round even surface brightness glow.  0.2’ across.

UGC 9990 trio – KTG 65  (15 43 45.5  +04 48 36)

22” f/4 (287 and 383x) – Very widely spaced trio arranged in a 30-60-right triangle.  9.5’ long on the lng side.  Quite a few mag 12 and 13 stars in the field with one “bright” mag 9.8 star.

UGC 9990  (1.2 x 0.3’  15.0p) –  Extremely faint 2:1 elongated even surface brightness  glow.  0.2’ across and PA = 160.  Located at the right angle.

CGCG 50-83  (0.8 x 0.6’  15.0) – Considerably bright round glow with a much brighter center.  Defined edges.  0.3’ across.  A mag 13.4 star lies 0.5’ NE.  Located at the 60 degree angle.

CGCG 50-87  (0.8 x 0.7’  15.2) – Very faint diffuse round even surface brightness glow.  0.2’ across.

NGC 5951 trio – KTG 62 (15 34 10.5  +15 06 03)

22” f/4 (192, 287 and 383x) –   A close double galaxy with a third member 16.2’ to the SW.  Fairly star rich region.

NGC 5951  (3.8 x 0.8’  13.4p) – This lone galaxy is a considerably faint 4:1 even surface brightness glow with very diffuse edges.  1.6’ long and PA = 0

NGC 5953  (1.6 x 1.3’  12.9) – Considerably bright round glow with a much brighter center.  Nearly stellar core.  0.5’ across.  A mag 15.3 star lies just off the SW edge.

NGC 5954  (1.2 x 0.5’  12.9) – Considerably bright slightly curved glow with couple knots detected near the east edge.  The east edge is very defined while the west edge is somewhat diffuse.  An extremely faint partial bridge (0.1’ long) is detected leading to the center of NGC 5953.  0.6’ long and PA = 0  

AGC 2065  (15 22 24.1  +27 42 48)

22” f/4 (230, 383 and 690x) – I only took a quick look at this object as Shneor was observing it.  At least 10 galaxies were detected; I admit that I didn’t mark which ones though.

Whenever I observe this cluster, I use the three reference stars marked as such.  This makes things a lot easier when keeping track of where I am.