Date:  May 19, 2012
Location: Blue Canyon at 5200 feet
NELM: NELM 6.9 at the beginning of the night, but deteriorated to 6.5 starting at about 1:00AM
Transparency:started at 5/5 but dropped to 3/5 at the end.
Seeing: Very steady at 5/5 at the beginning, but dropping down to 3/5 at the end

Telescope: 22” f/4.0 reflector on a Blandin equatorial platform
Eyepieces:  24mm Panoptic (finder eyepiece), 10 and 6mm ZAO-II’s, 9 and 7mm BGO’s, 10 and 6mm Delos and TMB 1.8ED Barlow

Started the evening with very high power views of Saturn and Mars.  I went as high as some stupid powers at 1034x (4mm ZAO-II with TMB barlow) and it still looked pretty good.

I’ve observed some flat galaxies and a bunch of trios.  Some of the obscure ones are listed with brief raw notes as follows:

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.

UGC 6686  11 43 228  +16 29 10  2.6x0.3’  15.0b

UGC 6594  11 37 37.3  +16 33 23  2.5x0.3’   14.4p

22” (230 and 383x) – Considerably faint even surface brightness flow with defined edges.  PA = 135 and 1.5’ long.  A N-S string of 14-15^th mag stars lies 2’ west. 

UGC 6791  11 49 24.0   +26 44 25   1.9x0.4’   15.0p

22” (230 and 383x) – Faint thick even surface brightness glow with no central brightening.  Defined edges.  1.3x0.2’ and PA = 0.  A crooked NE-SW string of 5 14-15^th mag stars lies to the north and west.

MCG-1-30-2   11 34 20.1   -06 23 23   1.5x0.2’   14.5

22” (230, 255, 328 and 383x) – Considerably faint thin even surface brightness glow.  Defined edges.  Best at 255x.  A faint mag 16 star lies just off the SW tip.  1.0’ long and PA = 30.  A mag 12.6 star lies 1.2’ WNW. 

MAC 1254+2805A/B, +2804 trio  RA: 12 54 14.7  Dec: +28 05 11  (center)

MAC 1254+2805A  0.7x0.3’  15.0

MAC 1254+2805B  0.6x0.3   16.0

MAC 1254+2804    0.5x0.2’   16.0

MAC 1242-1128B/C/D  RA: 12 42 40.3  Dec: -11 28 36  (center)  all three are listed at mag 16.0

22” (230, 255, 328 and 383x) – Very faint, very small round resolved glows equally spaced 0.9’ long.  Aligned at PA = 120. 

MCG-3-33-19/-20/-21  RA: 12 56 59.7  Dec: -20 29 20  (center)

1 = -19  0.9x0.8’  14.0

2 = -20  1.1x1.0’  13.8

3 = -21  0.9x0.6’  14.6

22” (230 and 383x) – A crooked line of three galaxies about 1.5 – 1.7’ apart.   -20 is the brightest of the trio, considerably bright round glow with somewhat diffuse edges.  Almost stellar core.  0.4’ across.  -21 is slightly fainter than -20, considerably bright round glow with somewhat diffuse edges.  Almost stellar core.  0.4’ across.  -19 is considerably faint round glow with diffuse edges.  Even surface brightness 0.3’ across. 

IC 871, 873, 876 trio   RA: 13 18 16  Dec: +04 26 41  (center)

IC 871 – 1.6x0.7’  14.2p

IC 873 – 0.4x 0.4’  15.3

IC 876 – 0.7x0.4’  14.9

22” (230x) – A nice string of three galaxies, nearly equidistant galaxies stretching 11’ long. 

 IC 871 – Bright 5:2 elongated glow with somewhat defined edges with a much brighter center.  1.1’ long and PA = 80.  A loose string of three 11-13^th mag stars pass through the east tip running from SE to NW.

IC 873 – Considerably bright small round glow with a stellar core.   0.3’ across. 

IC 876 – Considerably bright round glow with diffuse edges.  Slightly brighter center.  0.5’ across. 

IC 904, UGC 8631, CGCG 17-46   RA: 13 38 33.5  Dec: +00 31 42 (center)

IC 904  1.6x0.6’  14.6p

UGC 8631 1.1x0.7’  14.8

CGCG 17-46  1.0x0.2’  15.9

22”  (230 and 383x) – A crooked string of three distinctly different galaxies about 3.7’ long.  A bright mag 10.3 star lies 2.7’ SW from the westernmost member, CGCG 17-46.

IC 904 – considerably bright 2:1 elongated glow with a brighter slightly elongated center.  Diffuse edges.  0.6’ long and PA = 135. 

UGC 8631 – Very faint small elongated, very diffuse glow.  Even surface brightness.   0.5x0.2’ and PA = 90.  A mag 12.9 star lies just 1.3’ east.

CGCG 17-46 – Extremely faint very small thin streak.  0.2’ long and PA = 0

UGC 8686, CGCG 45-81/-84   RA: 13 43 51  Dec: +03 53 55 (center)

UGC 8686  1.5x0.4’  14.9

CGCG 45-81  0.4x0.3’   15.6

CGCG 45-84  1.1x0.4’  15.1

22” (230 and 383x) – Trio of two brighter galaxies with a very faint galaxy close to one of them. 

UGC 8686 – Considerably bright 3:1 elongated glow with defined edges.   Slightly brighter elongated center.  0.9’ long and PA = 60.

CGCG 45-81 – extremely faint 3:2 elongated even surface brightness glow.  0.2’ long and PA = 100.  Held 50% of the time with averted vision. 

CGCG 45-84 – Considerably bright 5:2 elongated glow with a much brighter elongated glow situated 90 degrees from the axis of the galaxy.  0.7’ long and PA = 100.

CGCG 17-67/-68    RA: 13 46 18  Dec: -03 24 10  (center)

CGCG 17-68 – 0.9x0.3’  14.8

CGCG 17-67 – 0.8x0.8’  15.4

22” (230, 255, 328 and 383x) – Three galaxies forming a very tall isosceles triangle with the base of 0.9’ wide and 3.1’ tall.  One of the galaxies was surprisingly unlisted.

CGCG 17-67 – Extremely faint, round glow with very diffuse edges.  0.3’ across.  Held 50% of the time with averted vision.

CGCG 17-68 – Considerably faint 3:1 elongated even surface brightness glow with defined edges.  0.5’ long and PA = 0.

Unlisted – Considerably faint slightly elongated glow with diffuse edges.  Brighter center.  0.3’ long and PA = 0.

UGC 8939, CGCG 18-29, -31   RA: 14 02 08.3  Dec: -01 22 38  (center)

UGC 8939  1.2x1.1’  14.1p

CGCG 18-29  0.5x0.5’  15.3

CGCG 18-31  0.8x0.2’  15.7

22” (230 and 255x) – Trio of three different appearing galaxies.

UGC 8939 – Considerably bright round diffuse glow with a much brighter center.  Defined edges.  0.6’ across.

CGCG 18-29 – Considerably faint round glow with a stellar core.  Somewhat defined edges.  0.3’ across.

CGCG 18-31 – Very faint 3:1 elongated glow with defined edges.  PA = 150 and 0.4’ long.  Held 75% of the time with  averted vision.

CGCG 47-27. -28, -29 trio   RA: 14 22 54  Dec: +06 09 53  (center)

CGCG 47-27  0.7x0.2’  15.5

CGCG 47-28  0.6x0.2’  15.6

CGCG 47-29  0.6x0.2’  15.6

22” (230x) – String of three equidistant galaxies about 4’ apart.  Stringing approximately E to W.  By this time the skies has deteriorated to NELM 6.2 in this part of the sky.

CGCG 47-27 – Very faint small round glow.  0.3’ across.  This is the brightest of the trio

CGCG 47-28 – Very faint small round glow.  0.3’ across. 

CGCG 47-29 – Very faint small round glow.  0.3’ across.  This is the dimmest of the trio, but not by much.

CGCG 47-37  RA: 14 25 56  Dec: +06 27 21  0.4x0.2’  15.1

22” (383 and 690x) – Considerably bright round glow with a stellar core.  0.2’ across.   A blazing mag 8.6 star lies 1.0’ due north.  I did not see the other two components.

NGC 5619, IC 4424, UGC 9258   RA: 14 27 26  Dec: +04 48 05  (center)

NGC 5619  2.1x1.1’  13.4p

IC 4424  1.0x0.3’  15.0

UGC 9258  0.8x0.7’  14.7p

22” (230 and 383x) – nice trio in a loose equilateral triangle.

NGC 5619 – Very bright 3:1 elongated glow with diffuse edges.  Much brighter very tight round center.  1.6’ long and PA = 0. 

IC 4244 – Faint 3:2 elongated glow with sharp edges.   0.3’ long and PA = 110.  A faint 16^th mag star lies just off the south edge. 

UGC 9258 – Considerably faint round glow with diffuse edges.  Even surface brightness.  0.2’ across. 

Nearby galaxy, MAC 1427+0445, was detected as a very faint very small round glow.  0.1’ across.

NGC 5679/A MCG+1-37-36   RA: 14 35 09  Dec: +05 21 32   (center)

NGC 5679   1.1x0.7’   13.8

NGC 5679A  1.3x0.6’  14.5

MCG+1-37-36  0.3x0.2’  unlisted mag

22” (383 and 690x) – Tight group of two NGC’s with a undetected MCG. With a 12-13^th magnitude double star in the mix.

NGC 5679 – Considerably bright 3:2 elongated glow with a brighter center.  0.5’ long and PA = 135.

NGC 5679A – Very faint small round glow with diffuse edges.  Lies 0.6’ east of NGC 5679.  The 12-13^th mag double star lies 0.3’ north.