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View Full Version : Object of the Week - Sept. 24, 2017 - NGC 6217



Paul Alsing
September 26th, 2017, 03:15 AM
Object of the Week - Sept. 24, 2017 - NGC 6217 (Other designations include Arp 185, UGC 10470, MCG +13-12-008, CGCG 355-014, PGC 58477… in Ursa Minor

R.A.: 16h 32m 39.4s Dec.: +78° 11' 54"
Size 3.0'x2.5';
V = 11.90 B; S.B. = 13.1

Debbie & I spent the last (4) nights at CalStar, an end-of-summer star party held in very nice skies 40 minutes northwest of Paso Robles, California. As always, it is great to gather with lots of long-time astro-buddies and share both the skies and their company at this very casual and laid-back event. My observing program this week was also casual and laid-back, and I had no prepared observing program whatsoever. On one night I just pulled out the Pocket Sky Atlas, turned to the “15h to 18h” ‘slice’ and just started near the pole, observing objects in turn, including both old familiar objects and new ones, as I moved south. I was spending a lot of time on each object, trying to tease as much detail as possible from each, not being in any particular hurry.

Before too long I arrived at this week’s OOTW, NGC 6217, in Ursa Minor. It lies about 67 million light years away and is less than half the size of our Milky Way. A little internet research reveals that it is also designated as Arp 185, and is in the Arp category of “Galaxies (not Classifiable as S or E) with Narrow Filaments”, although it sure looked to be a spiral galaxy to me!

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Using my new Obsession 18" f/4.2 UC, at first with my faithful 13mm Ethos (151X), which showed this galaxy to be fairly bright, and it appeared to be a bit smaller than its stated size of 3.0’ X 2.5’. It has a bright stellar core and just a hint of both a central bar and spiral arms. Changing to a Nagler 7mm (281X) substantially improved the view, and now the bar is obvious, and it sure looks like there is a star smack in the middle of the galaxy! There is an arm emanating from each end of the bar, although one of them, on the north end, is much stronger than the other, which also seems to be much shorter.

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The Hubble photo shows NGC 6217 in all of its glory, showing us that it is also a starburst galaxy, which means it is undergoing a very high rate of star formation, and is loaded with bluish SSC’s (super star clusters) and pinkish star-forming emission nebulae. What a grand site this is!

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As always, give it a go and let us know

Ivan Maly
September 26th, 2017, 10:25 AM
Big favorite. I've seen the galaxy in 4" and in 16, the bar, its extensions forming a segmented ring, and the star superimposed on the bar (300x with ZAOII, SQM 21.58).

kisspeter
September 26th, 2017, 05:57 PM
Great choice. NGC 6217 is a beautiful and interesting galaxy. I can contribute a 16" drawing from 2015 (220x-294x, Ágasvár, Hungary).

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Uwe Glahn
September 26th, 2017, 06:51 PM
Nice one Paul!

sketch: 27", 419x, NELM 7m0+, Seeing III
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Steve Gottlieb
September 30th, 2017, 12:30 AM
No sketch, but a couple more observations. Beautiful galaxy!

18" (9/3/08): this fascinating barred spiral displayed subtle spiral structure. At 280x, the main portion appears to be a large central bar, 1.5'x1.0', oriented NNW-SSE. The bar is punctuated by an unusually bright stellar nucleus. An extremely faint star is close SSE along the central bar. Off the north end of the bar is a faint appendage or arm that gently curves to the SE and increases the overall dimensions to 2'x1.5' . Off the SSE end of the bar, some very weak haze extends to the southwest (beginning of an arm).

17.5" (7/22/01): fairly bright, fairly large, elongated 2:1 NW-SE, ~2.5'x1.5', small bright core. Contains a bright stellar nucleus. A very faint star is just off the NW edge. At the NW end a faint spiral arm is attached to the main body, winding north and then trailing back nearly halfway along the NE flank (this increases the dimensions to ~2.5'x2.0'). With concentration a dark gap is visible between the arm and the main body (bar) of the galaxy. A very short extension is strongly suggested at the SE end, bending towards the west.

Howard B
October 2nd, 2017, 04:03 AM
My latest observation of NGC 6217 is from 2010 with my 28 inch:

"Nice galaxy - looks like a mini version of M83! It looks like it has a double core and is a bared spiral with two broad, sweeping arms coming off the ends (of the central bar). Looks great at 408x. 21.71 SQM."

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Although it's been 7 years since this observation I remember 6217 being a beautiful galaxy, and Paul, thanks for the reminder to visit it again soon.