Cartwheel galaxy.

[alocky (Andrew lockwood)]

I finally managed to get a decent view of the Cartwheel galaxy last night (ESO350-40 in Sculptor). My previous attempt two years ago I recorded as a positive, but only two smudges, wheras last night the ring was visible with averted vision.
The edge of the ring was visible, with the galaxy itself an off-centred smudge. Tracing the ring around there were small bright clumps occasionally apparent and hints of radial structure.
This is the first time I've seen a polar ring - an interesting galactic morphology caused by a collision.
I'm curious if others have viewed this object; Hartung's has observations from much smaller apertures than I was using, and it was by no means an easy target.
Scope was a 25" f5 at 254 power.
Thanks for reading!
Andrew.

[sopticals (Stephen)]

Thanks for the report Andrew. Good one.

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Andrew, another genuine Drop-through Ring Galaxy, also a southern object, is NGC 922. This is a more recently discovered object than the Cartwheel, and it has only had a small number of papers written about it.

Furthermore, it is easier to see than the Cartwheel!

However, it is only a part-ring.

(There are plenty of images of it available in Google Images.)


A possible/probable Southern ring galaxy, that does at least have the appearance of being caused by a galaxy collision, is PGC 12706
(= ESO 301-011).
I have seen the structure of this galaxy very clearly in the field of NGC 1316, in some amateur images. From memory, it can be well seen on Martin Pugh's image of NGC 1316.

[alocky (Andrew lockwood)]

Thanks for that - I've put it on the list for when Fornax rolls around next month. Looks like an interesting grouping of ESO gx nearby too. I'm starting to appreciate not going up and down the ladder too mamy times!
cheers,
Andrew.

[clive milne]

I have seen it using the 17.5" at Wiruna.

The skill of averted imagination does help.