Great job Ron, enjoyed the read!
Quote:
Originally Posted by pgc hunter
I've attempted IC 5332, which is a similar galaxy from outer suburbs using a 12" and managed to see a compact core with a very low surface brightness halo. These type of objects are very poorly suited to observation from anything less than a fully fledged dark site.
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Just as a matter of interest, seeing as I had good dark skies tonight, I had a go at NGC 7424 and IC 5332 with my 4.5" f8 Tasco with 21mm EP (43x). Both were extremely faint, hard to hold, and not the sort of objects I would ever pick up in idly scanning through the fields - but I had their positions well nailed down in the field. NGC 7424 was a shapeless ghost-of-a-ghost, while IC 5332 was a little easier to see. I got the impression it has a slightly brighter core than 7424 - in fact that was pretty much all I saw of it I think. By contrast, the mag 11.3 NGC 7410, just a field away, was an easy spot, a nice little edge-on. A similar distance away from 7424, the faint mag 12.2 NGC 7462 was also visible, but only in averted vision because of a bright little star at one end.
Two good lessons - good skies are everything, and magnitude on its own doesn't mean much! I'd love to see all these galaxies in a 10" or 12" under skies at my place. The door's always open fellas!
Cheers -