[Skip (Ian)]

As many would know, I have been able to gather together some transparencies from the Royal Observatory Edinburgh that are copied from plates taken at the UK Schmidt Telescope in NSW, Australia. They were being discarded as the film library closed down. The film is stunning and I am selling off some of the spare film. (Details in earlier threads).

Some more film will be listed in a few days. Please come back and have a look.

I have been meaning to give some details on two other fields in the collection: Fields 351 and 357. This is the descriptions given in the UKST Teaching Sets:

Field 351 Sculptor $30

This interesting, high latitude field, more than 80 degrees south of the Milky Way, is in the constellation Sculptor (the sculptor's studio) and contains few bright stars; indeed, only the brightest sigma Sculptoris, in the very north east corner would be visible to the unaided eye.

The large galaxy on the edge of the field is NGC 300, a loose spiral galaxy. Its spiral structure, characterised by star clusters and dust clouds along its arms, is easily visible.

Towards the eastern edge of the film a large faint mass of stars about 3cm across forms the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy. This galaxy is a member of the Local Group of Galaxies, containing some 20 galaxies including our own Milky Way Galaxy. The Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy is about 270 000 light years away - which is not substantially further than the Small Magellanic Cloud at 210 000 light years! This galaxy is one of the intrinsically faintest galaxies known. It is also one of the nearest galaxies and we can be fairly certain that these faint galaxies are actually quite common but more distant ones are simply too faint to be seen.

Careful examination of the field towards the west edge will reveal the unusual ring galaxy (called "the Cartwheel") and its two companions. It is clear why this peculiar object is so called; the prominent rim and spokes are believed to have resulted from a head-on collision with the easternly of the two companion galaxies.

Other interesting galaxies include an interacting pair in which a spiral galaxy interacts with an elliptical galaxy which shows a strong obscuring dust lane.

The field contains: Cartwheel Galaxy, NGC 300 (large spiral, Type Sc), Interacting galaxies (Type SO and Sa), IC 1608 (Spiral, Type Sa), Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy (Type dE), NGC 365 (Spiral, Type Sb).

Two of the brightest clusters of galaxies on this field can be found at the following positions: 00h49m7, -35d14m and 00h53m1, -37d37m. The second cluster appears very close to NGC 300 but is actually very much more distant.

A bright satellite or meteor trail crosses the field north-south, to the west of centre. (... and the film is marked "Reject" ... not in my books)

Field 357 Fornax $30

This high latitude field lies within the constellation Fornax (the furnace) and its distance from the Milky Way allows even quite faint galaxies to be observed.

The brightest stars in the field are around 6th and 7th magnitude, probably just too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. Two of these are located in the group of stars near the eastern edge. Also in this group is a binary star but only the brighter star can be seen. The star south of the centre is SAO 194163. This object, a hot blue star, appears brighter than x2 For, a red giant, because this photographic emulsion is most sensitive to blue light.

The bright objects in the southeast quadrant form part of a larger group of galaxies known as the Fornax cluster of galaxies. Straddling the constellations of Fornax and Eridanus, this group contains 18 bright galaxies and several fainter ones. The brightest of these, NGC 1316, is a giant peculiar galaxy some 90 million light years distant and identified with strong radio source Fornax A. A large halo, 400 000 light years across (twice the diamemter of the Milky Way), encloses both NGC 1316 and its smaller companion NGC 1317. Some of the other members of this group are also visible in this field.

Two other fairly bright galaxies can be seen in the northeast sector, while a study of the rest of the field will reveal many fainter objects (e.g. a cluster of faint galaxies in the extreme S.W. corner).

Galxies include: NGC 1288 (Type Sc), NGC 1310 (Type Sc), NGC 1316 (Type SO), NGC 1317 (Type SO), NGC 1326 (Type SO), NGC 1336 (Type E), NGC 1339 (Type E), NGC 1326a/b.

A satellite trail runs across the field from west to south-east. (The field is marked "Reject", again, not in my books!)