October Challenge Object (GX) - Grus Quartet

[Robby]

Hi Guys,
Details of the shot....
Scope C9.25 @ f/6.3, Camera Canon 300D. Image was slightly cropped from full size.
13x4min exposures at ISO800.
Cheers

[dhumpie]

This one was pointed out to me by Andrew (astro_south) when I first visited Leyburn way way back in 2001. He had a very interesting nickname for them, "the three bears" which stuck till this day. They make for a very interesting view at low power not unlike some of the other more famous galaxy groups like the Fornax cluster. The three main members are easy but there is a fainter 4th member. Not much detail in the individual galaxies though. Anyway have a look at one of my earliest sketches:

http://www.geocities.com/dhumpie/dastro/7599-82-52.jpg

Darren

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

This is a great cluster of Galaxies
My first view of them was through Astro Souths scope ... awesome
I have found them several times since, worth the effort !

[astro_south (Andrew)]

Here is my sketch of these galaxies done around last moon from a dark sky site. The eyepiece used was a 13mm Nagler and it didn't fit all 4 galaxies into the one field of view. Therefore the gap between the three close galaxies and the fourth may not be accurate as it transends a couple of fields (though I tried to be as close as possible)

[atalas]

Very nice Andrew ! how much time did you spend viewing these guy's and do you think that you see more and more detail th longer you look ?

Darren & Andrew,

Great sketches guy's. I have to wait until the moon stop interfering and the clouds to disapprear. Then I can give it a shot with the pencil.

regards,CS

[astro_south (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by atalas

how much time did you spend viewing these guy's and do you think that you see more and more detail th longer you look ?

Louie - The sketch took me about 20 mins to do. There is a lot of staring through the eyepiece and then transposing the details to the sketch book while juggling a torch and pencils. I often find myself noting a few features and then when I go to draw them I second guess myself and I need to go back to the eyepiece to check the detail.

You definitely see more the more you observe an object, and I guess that was one of the drivers behind doing the MOCs. Of course the other thing that helps is aperture. In the past I have "found objects" and pretty well much left it at that, now when I locate objects I like to spend a little time and see what I can "observe".

Rob - cheers for the feedback - look forward to checking out your efforts.