Dorado Galaxies

[The Mekon]

Last night's sky was quite steady and clear from my town backyard in Bowral. So I put the 106mm refractor out for some quick viewing before the moon came up.
In January I had observed the NGC 1566 galaxy group in Dorado in my 18" being impressed with the brightness of three of it members. This group is not mentioned much in the literature, but should be as the three brightest members 1566, 1553 & 1549 can be all be contained easily in a 1.5 degree field.
So in went the 13mm Nagler for 54X and 1.5 degrees. The three galaxies were beautifully framed, each a distinct extended object.
My backyard is in the town with lighting all around. But as this group is very high early in the evening, this did not seem to affect the view.
Can recommend anyone try this with a 4" and up scope - a lovely grouping.

[bigjoe]

John...

Heard about how good the AT 106 is at only 4kg? and resolution of 1.09" ..very, very useful indeed....and one of my all time favourite EPs, the 13mm t6..the best Nagler optically in my view...such unsurpassed clarity.

Could imagine the view framed..lucky day for you too.
bigjoe

[Saturnine]

I remember observing this galaxy group several ( many ) years ago with my 8" F6 dob from our club site near Jamberoo and being impressed by the tightness of the grouping and the brightness. Not as bright as the Leo Triplet but well worth a look, according to Hartungs, mags of 9.4 for 1566 and 9.9 for 1553 and 1549. From memory I was probably using an 30mm 80* UW eyepiece which easily fitted them in the FOV.

[Tinderboxsky]

I had a chance to observe this galaxy group last night in very good seeing and transparency; my first observation of any members of the Dorado Galaxy Group.

I agree, it is a fine sight in a 2 degree fov. I was using a Pan 24 giving just over a 2 degree FOV and 4.2mm exit pupil. The three galaxies were reasonably bright and were accompanied by some companion stars around mag 8 which added to the fov. Best individual views on the night were with an LVW13 giving 62X and a 2.3mm exit pupil.

1566 showed slight condensation and an increase in brightness to the centre. There was a very faint foreground star embedded in the east-south-east (I think!!) quadrant.
1549 appeared diffuse and quite irregular in shape with a slightly brighter core. Three nearby stars accompanied the galaxy.
1553 is very close to 1549 with a mag8 star between them. 1553 was the most “oval” in appearance, was slightly brighter than the others and showed hints of structure/mottling without giving up it’s actual structure. Higher magnification at 100X did not reveal any more detail on the night.

Scope: Vixen NA140SS on TRex mount.

Thanks for the lead John. I could image this would be a quite memorable sight through your 18” SDM.