Allan
April 18th, 2018, 10:40 AM
Copeland’s Septet is a tight group of seven NGC galaxies ranging from magnitude 14.5 to 16.2. Using my 10 Delos for 310x they easily fit in the 15’ wide FOV. Separation between some members is tight, which creates a challenge to observe all the individual members.
It was not difficult at all to observe all seven members in the 32” at 310x and 387x, with detail evident in a few members. The brightest, NGC 3753 had a quite obvious dark lane running through the centre, while NGC 3748 also sported a very faint dark lane that I caught with averted vision a few times. NGC 3746 appeared relatively bright and round, with a slightly brighter core and fainter extended detail. The other four galaxies are quite small, and appeared relatively bright and well seperated from their companions.
As a bonus, magnitude 16.7 PGC 169872 and magnitude 17.0 PGC 36010 were also clearly seen with direct vision among the cluster group. Seeing all nine members clearly was not a difficult observation at all, and hopefully a good sign of the observing to come with my new 32”.
It was not difficult at all to observe all seven members in the 32” at 310x and 387x, with detail evident in a few members. The brightest, NGC 3753 had a quite obvious dark lane running through the centre, while NGC 3748 also sported a very faint dark lane that I caught with averted vision a few times. NGC 3746 appeared relatively bright and round, with a slightly brighter core and fainter extended detail. The other four galaxies are quite small, and appeared relatively bright and well seperated from their companions.
As a bonus, magnitude 16.7 PGC 169872 and magnitude 17.0 PGC 36010 were also clearly seen with direct vision among the cluster group. Seeing all nine members clearly was not a difficult observation at all, and hopefully a good sign of the observing to come with my new 32”.