Seven Galaxies One FOV

Tamtarn · #1 13-09-2006, 09:10 PM

Melbourne served up a good night last night and here in the Yarra Valley it was great.

We decided to have a Nebulae and Galaxy night. We started around 7.30pm with the Ring then the Dumbell...Saturn...Helix...Trifid.. .Lagoon...Swan...Eagle...Tarantula.
Wow!! How can you beat that !

Adding 47 Tucanae which was simply stunning with the Pentax 10XW resolved right to the core.

We then switched to exploring new areas to find galaxies in Sculptor, Fornax and Eridanus .
We appreciate Ken's (Ballarat Dragons ) advise on a previous post recommending to spend more time at the EP with each galaxy to take in more detail. THANKS KEN

Our surprise was when we looked for NGC1399 in Eridanus we found 1365 and 1316 in the same FOV with the 27mm Pano. Then further concentration at the EP we found another four galaxies in the same FOV. Nothing on the chart we used to tell us what the other four were. We assume others have seen this group of galaxies before but this was our first time seeing multiple galaxies in this area.

All in all a super night packing up about 1.30am. Love it!! Love It!!

Barb & David

bloodhound31 · #2 13-09-2006, 09:22 PM

Now that's the perfect observing session I like to hear about! I would certainly like to give my optics a good clean, shoot the 3 street lights across the road, and have a goosey myself!

You lucky dudes!!

Cheers,

Barry.

Barrys home made observatory
http://members.iinet.net.au/~armstead

janoskiss (Steve H) · #3 13-09-2006, 09:35 PM

I'm green with envy. You must have some of the best skies of all members in and around Melbourne!

I'm spending this w/e out-of-town, and taking the 12" along. Hope to catch some clear and deep skies.

And my first chance to test out my Sky Quality Meter (which btw arrived swiftly from Unihedron Canada) under darker skies!

Starkler (Geoff) · #4 13-09-2006, 09:49 PM

The fornax/eridanus galaxies have to be my visual highlight of the year.
Love em

And isnt it nice to fit so many of them into the fov of that 27mm panoptic

iceman (Mike) · #5 14-09-2006, 06:07 AM

Excellent report, great to hear relatively newbies really getting a feel for this observing thing

I love the grus triplet, when it comes to galaxy clusters.

glenc (Glen) · #6 14-09-2006, 09:15 AM

NGC 1316 is 3.6 degs from NGC 1399. It was probably not in the same field of view.
Maybe you saw NGC 1365, 1379, 1380, 1387, 1399 & 1404.

There are 9 galaxies, NGC 1374, 1379, 1380, 1381, 1386, 1387, 1389, 1399, 1404, in one field of view

Tamtarn · #7 14-09-2006, 09:31 AM

Thanks Glen

Would you have a link to a chart with the galaxies you have listed ? My charts are very basic and only have the three galaxies I listed above on them.

A more detailed finder chart of this area would be great.

Hope you can help me.

Barb

glenc (Glen) · #8 14-09-2006, 09:44 AM

This is from Guide8. North is at the top.

There is a free star atlas at:
http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/
It is called Cartes Du Ciel.

Tamtarn · #9 14-09-2006, 03:22 PM

Thanks a lot Glen. The detail on the chart will be a great help to me in identifying the other galaxies.

astroron (Ron) · #10 14-09-2006, 05:57 PM

Barb,David here are some DSS images taken from Sky&Space magazine Nov/Dec 2004,they will give you an idea what you are looking at ,only a bit larger

glenc (Glen) · #11 14-09-2006, 05:58 PM

Here are some star atlases,

http://astro.nineplanets.org/astrosoftware.html

and a another map of the Fornax Galaxy Cluster.
The map is correct way up for midnight tonight, it is from SkyMapPro.

astroron (Ron) · #12 14-09-2006, 06:00 PM

Here is anothe image I couldn't fit in the last post

davidpretorius · #13 14-09-2006, 09:41 PM

what a great report!!! i am definately going to try for that one!

thanks for sharing

glenc (Glen) · #14 15-09-2006, 04:01 AM

4 galaxies in Gru transit at about 11pm now.
5 galaxies in Dor transit at about 4am now.
Here are two maps from SkyMapPro.

Coords are
N7582 23h19m -42d20m
N1553 04h16m -55d45m

Don Pensack · #15 15-09-2006, 05:41 AM

I love these multi-galaxy fields. The best I ever saw was through a friend's 28" pointed at NGC 1275 in the Perseus cluster--50 galaxies in a 1 degree field of view--way more glaxies than stars!
A 1 degree field around NGC 7331 in Pegasus contained all 5 of its companions and the 5 (actually 6) of Stephan's Quintet (HGC 92).
I never see the field you're talking about as high in the sky, but I've seen all the NGC objects in the area.
I'd love to see them overhead--they're a lot larger and brighter than the Perseus or Pegasus galaxies.

astroron (Ron) · #16 15-09-2006, 09:45 AM

Don, at 26.38 South I don't see a lot of galaxies north of about +45degs but as you pointed out we would like to see a bit more of each others hemisphere, which I hope to do in the future

Tamtarn · #17 15-09-2006, 10:05 AM

Thanks Glen for the charts and thanks for the amazing list of star atlases.

Thanks Ron for the time you spent putting the images from S&S 2004 they also help me identify what I have in the FOV of the EP.

Also thanks to Mike for introducing us to the Grus Trio of Galaxies. What a beauty

also noticed another on at the lower edge of the 27 Pano. Would that have been NGC7552 ?? (Just testing if my new info works

)

Since our original post on this thread we have gained so much more information on the galaxies in the Fornax region than we ever new existed. And from Mike an introduction to the cluster in Grus. Thanks a million guys

This is why we love IIS so much. From our simple report here the IIS community have given us a wealth of information. I'm sure it will benifit others who happen to read this thread.

BTW did a tour of galaxy clusters again last night. Browsing Eridanus searched for and found NGC1535 nebula. Just a number on my chart, it turned out to be a very interesting Planetary reminded me a little of the Saturn nebula. A lovely small blue ring with an outer halo. Have since been on the net and images are just as I saw it in the EP

this is one to look out for.

Barb

astroron (Ron) · #18 15-09-2006, 10:21 AM

Barb, you would be right in Ngc 7552 being the other galaxy.
This galaxy is sometimes grouped with the other three galaxies to be called the Grus quartet, they are my favorite Southern galaxy group
As you say IIS is a great dispenser of information

glenc (Glen) · #19 15-09-2006, 10:27 AM

You might also be interested in the PN NGC 7027.
See http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=13094

glenc (Glen) · #20 15-09-2006, 10:34 AM

James Dunlop found the Grus galaxies from his backyard in Parramatta in 1826 with a 9" reflector. Here are his descriptions and an image.

D475 N7552
A small faint nebula, rather elongated in the parallel of the equator, about 30" broad, and 40" long; there is a pretty bright point situated near the centre of the nebula: a small star (mag 9.2) precedes it.

D476 N7582
A small faint round nebula, about 30" diameter: a double nebula follows this.

D477 N7590 only
Two very small round nebulae, nearly the same AR, and differing about 1' in polar distances.

See http://www.rcopticalsystems.com/gallery/ngc7582.html
for Verschatse’s image