Quote:
Originally Posted by madbadgalaxyman
Shelley,
NGC 5102 is a remarkably tough object for visual observers, especially considering that its total visual magnitude is around 9.6!!
It is a very extended object, so its extremely-diffuse and Low Surface Brightness appearance is equivalent to smearing a 9.6 magnitude star over a large area of sky (about 9 by 3 arcminutes, or even larger to fainter levels of surface brightness)
So keep on trying!
I have been able to see the actual outline of this galaxy with 8-10 inches of aperture, but the sky needs to be very dark and very transparent.
In poorer skies, it is only possible to see the brightest & very centralmost part of this galaxy.
Admittedly, the below image of NGC 5102 is in the near-infrared, but because the stars in this galaxy are mostly old, a visual-wavelengths image would look similar.
This image is from the 2MASS survey, which were all short exposures;
in my view, this is a fair representation of what this galaxy would look like visually, under absolutely perfect conditions:
Attachment 138865
Cheers,
Robert |
Hmmm
do you think maybe I was looking at something else then? Seemed to be in the right spot and had the slightest amount of fuzz. No detail at all, just seemed like a star that was smudged so I knew it wasn't "just a star". The picture you've provided seems spot on the money too, so I'm really confused now haha. And I've found it a few times now in the same spot.