Date:  December 17, 2011
Location: Blue Canyon at 5200 feet
NELM: 6.5
Transparency:3/5
Seeing: Very steady at 3/5

Telescope: 22” f/4.0 reflector on a Blandin equatorial platform
Eyepieces:  24mm Panoptic (finder eyepiece), 10 and 6mm ZAO-II’s, 9 and 7mm BGO’s, 10 and 6mm Delos and TMB 1.8ED Barlow

NGC 283 area    RA: 00 53 23  Dec: -13 08 39  (center)

22” f/4 (230 and 383x) – Nice quartet of four brighter galaxies with one fainter neighbor.  There were a couple nearby MAC galaxies that were not seen.

NGC 283  (00 53 13.3  -13 09 53  1.9x1.0’  13.5) – Considerably bright round core with a very faint extended round halo with diffuse edges.  Core is 0.4’ and halo is 0.7’ across.

NGC 284  (00 53 24.2  -13 09 32  0.8’  14.6) – Considerably bright round glow with well defined edges.  0.3’ across.

NGC 285  (00 53 29.9  -13 09 38  0.7x0.4’  16.0) – Considerably bright round glow with defined edges, just a bit more diffuse than NGC 284.  0.3’ across.

NGC 286  (00 53 30.4  -13 06 45  1.2x0.8’  14.5) – Considerably bright slightly elongated glow with somewhat diffuse edges.  0.4’ long and PA = 0.

MCG-2-3-32  (00 53 16.3  -13 08 10  0.5x0.2’  15.5) – Very faint small round glow.  0.2’ across.

IC 93 group   RA: 01 18 53  Dec: -17 02 40  (center)

22” f/4 (230 and 383x) – A trio of galaxies arranged in a very tall triangle.

IC 93  (01 19 02.3  -17 03 37  1.3x0.7  12.5) – Considerably bright 3:1 elongated glow.  high surface brightness glow with well-defined edges.  PA = 170 and 0.9’ long.

MCG -3-4-44  (01 19 03.0  -17 01 26  1.1x0.3’  16.6) – Considerably faint 3:1 elongated even surface brightness glow.  PA = 90 and 0.6’ long.  I think this is brighter than the listed magnitude, a bit closer to 15.5

MCG-3-4-39  (01 18 42.4  -17 03 01  1.0x0.9’  14.5) – Considerably faint round even surface brightness glow with very diffuse edges.  0.6’ across.

IC 1670 group  RA: 01 18 50  Dec: -16 47 43  (center)

22” f/4  (230 and 383x) – A nice pair of edge on galaxies with two very close MAC companions, of which only one was seen.  This pair lies just 5.5’ due north of the IC 93 group

IC 1670A  (01 18 48.1  -16 48 08  2.0x0.5’  14.2) – Considerably faint, even surface brightness glow.  3:1 elongated PA = 135 and 1.2’ long.  A 15^th mag star lies 1’ north.

IC 1670B  (01 18 52.7  -16 48 12  1.7x0.6’  14.6) – Considerably bright 3:1 elongated glow with a brighter center.  PA = 90 and 0.9’ long. 

MAC 0118-1647A  (01 18 45.2  -16 47 05  0.6x0.3’  17.5) – Very faint, small round glow.  0.1’ across.

MCG+8-3-11 trio  RA: 01 16 11  Dec: +46 44 05

22” f/4  (230 and 383x)

MCG+8-3-11 01 16 04.5  +46 43 50  0.9x0.4’  15.1) – Considerably faint 5:2 elongated glow.  Even surface brightness.  With averted vision, very faint short extension on each end are detected PA = 30 and 0.4’ long. 

UGC 813  (01 16 16.5  +46 44 27  1.2x0.5’  14.8p) – Considerably faint 2:1 glow with a brighter center.  PA = 120 and 0.3’ long.

UGC 816  (01 16 20.8  +46 44 51  1.9x0.9’  14.2p) – Considerably bright glow with a much brighter center.  With averted vision, very faint spiral arms are intermittingly detected.

NGC 735 trio  RA: 01 56 38  Dec: +34 11 22  (center)

22” f/4  (230 and 383x)

NGC 735  (01 56 38.1  +34 10 33  1.8x0.8’  14.1b) – Bright 2:1 elongated glow with  star embedded in the NW tip.  PA = 135 and 0.6’ long.

PGC 7293  (01 56 44.3  +34 11 17  0.2’  16.4b) – Very faint, very small round glow.

V Zw 146 (01 56 33.8  +34 11 47  0.3’  16.3) – Very faint small round glow.  A bit brighter than PGC 7293

NGC 969 trio and nearby galaxies   RA: 02 34 31.6  Dec: +32 54 39  (center)

22” f/4  (230 and 383x)

NGC 969  (02 34 08.0  +32 56 51  1.7x1.2’  13.3p) – Bright 2:1 elongated glow with a very bright small round center.  PA = 0 and 0.8’ long.

NGC 974  (02 34 25.9  +32 57 16  1.7x1.2’  13.5p) – Considerably bright round glow with a brighter center and diffuse edges.  1’ across.

NGC 970 (02 34 12.0  +32 58 38  0.7x0.2’  15.7)– At first it appeared as an even surface brightness thin glow.  Cranking the magnification to 640x, it was busted apart into 2 components, with the western one a bit smaller and fainter than the eastern chunk.

NGC 978A/B (02 34 47.0  +32 50 45  1.4x0.9’/0.6x0.3’  13.2/15.5) – Bright slightly elongated glow with defined edges.  Component B appears as a knot on the SW edge.  0.6’ long and PA = 90.

MAC 0234+3253  (02 34 35.4  +32 53 33  0.6x0.2’  16.0)  – very faint 2:1 elongated glow

MAC 0234+3254 (02 34 34.6  +32 54 14  0.4x0.2’  16.5) – extremely faint round glow

NGC 680 trio  RA: 01 49 42  Dec: +21 59 44  (center)

22” f/4  (230 and 383x)

NGC 678 (01 49 24.8  +22 59 51  4.4x0.7’  13.3b) – Bright elongated glow with a brighter round center. 

NGC 680 (01 49 47.3  +22 58 16  2.0x1.6’  11.9v) – Bright round glow with  diffuse edges.

MAC 0149+2200 (01 49 57.9  +22 00 43  0.7x0.4’  14.5) – Very faint round even surface brightness glow.

NGC 1625 trio   RA: 04 36 34  Dec: -03 12 26

22” f/4  (230 and 383x) – widely spaced trio of edge on galaxies with a mag 3.9 star, Nu Eridani

NGC 1625 (04 37 06.2  -03 18 12  2.7x0.7’  12.2v) – fairly bright 4:1 elongated glow with a faint star on the NW tip.  PA = 135 and 1.6’ long.

NGC 1622 (04 36 36.4  -03 11 20  4.0x0.8’  12.5v) – Bright with a somewhat brighter 2:1 elongated center.  Diffuse edges.  PA = 30 and 1.5’ long.

NGC 1618 (04 36 05.9  -03 09 09  2.8x0.9’  12.7v) – Bright, 5:2 elongated glow with a little brighter center.  Slightly mottled surface.  Diffuse edges.  PA = 30 and 1.3’ long

NGC 1600 trio    RA: 04 31 46  Dec: -05 04 38   (center)

22” f/4  (230 and 383x) – Big elliptical with several fainter small companions and three very faint MAC galaxies in a fairly star rich region, punctuated with a pair of mag 7 stars.

NGC 1600 (04 31 39.9  -05 05 10  3.0x2.5’  10.9v) – Blazing!

NGC 1603 (04 31 49.9  -05 05 39  1.0x0.7’  13.8v) – Considerably bright round glow.  0.4’ across

NGC 1601 (04 31 41.7  -05 03 36  0.9x0.3’  13.8v) – Considerably bright 2:1 elongated glow.  PA = 90 and 0.4’ long.

NGC 1606 (04 32 03.3  -05 01 56  0.5’  15.9) – Considerably bright round glow.  0.2’ across

MAC 0431-0507 (04 31 26.6  -05 07 32  0.4x0.1’  16.5) – Very faint small round glow.  0.1’ across

MAC 0431-0509B (04 31 32.3  -05 09 09  0.5x0.2’  16.5) – Very faint small round glow. 0.1’ across

MAC 0431-0509A (04 31 31.9  -05 09 50  0.4x0.3’ 16.0) – Very faint small round glow. 0.1’ across

Abell 7 (RA: 05 03 07.5  Dec:  -15 36 23  Size: 12.7’  Mag: 13.2p)

22” f/4  (115x with O-III filter) – Direct vision, irregular round glow.  Two slightly brighter areas, labeled as A and B. 11’ across.

Nearby galaxy, MCG-3-13-58 (05 02 29.1  -15 32 43  2.1x0.7’ 14.5) – Very faint 3:1 elongated low surface brightness glow.  PA = 80 and 1.2’ long.