Two interesting galaxies near the SMC are NGC 360 and NGC 646.
N360 is an nice edge on mag 13.4 Galaxy and mag 14.2 NGC 646 looks like a snake.
N360 is 5.2 degrees due north of the globular NGC 362.
Here is a SkyMapPro map to help find them at 5am and DSS images of the two galaxies from the NGCic website. http://www.ngcic.org/dss/dss_ngc.asp
I was going to try an see if I could nab these over night but it got a lil cloudy
around 11pm here. Plus the seeing wasn't the best here last night, although
I still stayed out for 4 hours.
Saw both NGC 360 & NGC 646 this am with the 12" Dob, but no shape in 646. It's cold today, minus 0.2 @ 5am in Casino.
Also used a low power eyepiece (50 times with a 92' field) to see: Messier's 31, 32, 110, 33, 77, 2, 45, 30 and
NGC's 104, 362, 55, 300, 7793, 247,253, 288, 1291, 1313, 1316, 1317, 1360, 1398, 1350, 1365, 1380, 1399, 1404 etc (9 galaxies in one field), 1532, 1549, 1553, 1566, 1792, 1808, 1851, 7552, 7582, 7590, 7599 (4 galaxies in field), 7293.
After that I scanned the SMC & LMC at low power: N330, 346, 371, 1763, 1850, 2070 etc
Earlier in the night I used the 20x80s to look at the North American Nebula and other things. Very clear and COLD, -0.4 @6am.
Nicolas Lacaille (in 1751-52), James Dunlop (in 1826) and John Herschel (in 1834-38) recorded 1,438 southern clusters, nebulae and galaxies all told. I have been looking at images of all of these at: http://www.ngcic.org/dss/dss_ngc.asp
Two interesting galaxies near the SMC are NGC 360 and NGC 646.
N360 is an nice edge on mag 13.4 Galaxy and mag 14.2 NGC 646 looks like a snake.
N360 is 5.2 degrees due north of the globular NGC 362.
Here is a SkyMapPro map to help find them at 5am and DSS images of the two galaxies from the NGCic website. http://www.ngcic.org/dss/dss_ngc.asp
Weather permitting, I will have a try for these two galaxies tonight,
After a week of observing and a long Saturday night Sunday morning, I had a couple of nights off, but will be back into it tonight
Weather permitting, I will have a try for these two galaxies tonight,
After a week of observing and a long Saturday night Sunday morning, I had a couple of nights off, but will be back into it tonight
After checking my viewing position, the chances of seeing these two objects are very limited due to two large trees that are in the way till about three o'clock in the morning I might just have to wait till Duckadang
After checking my viewing position, the chances of seeing these two objects are very limited due to two large trees that are in the way till about three o'clock in the morning I might just have to wait till Duckadang
Contrary to above I was able to observe these two galaxies early this morning.
15:50 UT 01:50 AEST. NGC 360 straight faint bar, stars to 14th mag. no other detail.trans 6-10 seeing 5-10 temp -1deg. 13mm Nagler 5mm X CEL
16:00 UT 02:00 AEST NGC 646 very faint curl with blob on west end, just hinted at in 13mm, improved in 5mm.
Just caught these two galaxies befor they went behind the trees mentioned above.
Ceased observing after this observation as the seeing was deteriating and it was getting quite cold at -2deg and falling
The telescope was covered with ice
Ron I was interested in your description of a "very faint curl with blob on west end". Congratulations on seeing them.
Thanks Glen.
The seeing was diving down very rapidly and the objects where just about near the end of observabilaty, Jupiter was just a Big white fuzzy ball with no detail whatsoever .
I hope to observe them in more favourable conditions in the near future,but not tonight
Wow! I really like the look of 646. I've never seen it. I'll certainly add that one to the list of 'definately must do'. It looks like 2 colliding Galaxies, an irregular and a barred spiral.
I really think I'll be struggling to image it though. At mag 14.2 the poor old Toucam will be filled with Amp Glow due to the length of the exposure!
Ah well, I'll still give it a go, ya never know. Thanks Glen.
I might just have to wait till Duckadang
