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View Full Version : Object of the Week, May22, 2022 – NGC 5746



Howard B
May 23rd, 2022, 07:50 AM
Virgo
Edge-on barred galaxy
RA: 14 44 56
Dec: +01 57 14
Magnitude: 11.0

4709

This past April, I joined Steve Gottleib and Akarsh Simha on a visit to Jimi Lowrey in west Texas and get in some observing with his 48-inch scope. We had four observable nights out of five, but with variable wildfire smoke taking the edge of the sky much of the time. Based on our observation of NGC 5746 on our second night of observing, I’m delighted that NGC 5746 is available for an OOTW object.

Two reasons – one, it’s a magnificent edge-on barred spiral in eastern Virgo that’s well away from the main clumps of galaxies in the Virgo-Coma cluster. Secondly, my observation of it got a good laugh out of us at the time, and hopefully I can relay some of the humor here for all to enjoy.

5746 is big and bright compared to most object’s we observe through the 48-inch, and I suggested it when the sky was losing its edge – wildfire smoke was moving in. But we couldn’t think of its NGC number off the top of collective heads, and while searching for it in Megastar, Jimi came across NGC’s 4716/17 and 4517, all cool objects. So, we looked at them first. Finally, someone – I think it was Jimi – looked up 5746 and that was the one I really wanted to look at.

After Jimi did his goto to 5746 and centered it in the eyepiece of the 48-inch at 488x, he came down the ladder muttering how awful it looked because of the smoky skies. He was truly disappointed. I went up the ladder next not expecting much, and to my astonishment I thought the view was quite extraordinary! As I came down the ladder, I said something to effect that “yeah, the sky is lousy, but that’s the best view I’ve ever had of 5746! We all had a good laugh at the stark contrast of our opinions.

Of course, Jimi knows what 5746 looks like on a great night through his scope and I don’t, but this smoky view so far exceeded what I’ve seen through my 28-inch scope on a great night that I was genuinely impressed. Ah, the power of aperture!

Aside from that, NGC 5746 is about 95 Mly from us, which is about double the distance of most of the Virgo Cluster galaxies. Even so, it has a fairly large apparent size of 7.4 x 1 arc minutes, and at 11th magnitude is quite bright.

I have two observations to share – my best view through my 28-inch and the view through Jim’s 48-inch a few weeks ago.

28-inch:
“An excellent edge on galaxy, slightly smaller and slightly dimmer than NGC 4565. High power paid off even though the seeing is so-so this low (this observation was made in early August, 2006) but at 92x, the bright star 109 Vir is in the same FOV and makes a lovely pairing. 92x to 408x,”

4710

48-inch:
I made a quick sketch from memory of 5746 after coming down the ladder from the eyepiece of the 48-inch scope, and wrote this brief note:

“Although transparency is going downhill (because of wildfire smoke) this is best view I’ve had of this galaxy. 488x, 21.62 SQM

4711

The message of my post is that NGC 5746 is big and bright enough to look good even in less-than-ideal skies, so- give it go and let us know!

wvreeven
May 23rd, 2022, 12:14 PM
Great choice Howard! With my 20" I logged in May 2015:

At 151x I see a beautiful, large edge on galaxy with a dark lane running through its center. Very spectacular!

This was from my old, dark location in Spain where SQM values usually went up to 21.4 or 21.5. I didn't note down the SQM value for this particular night though. Not sure why I didn't try higher magnifications either.

Raul Leon
May 23rd, 2022, 12:31 PM
Hi, here's my observation from 6/11/2021: ngc 5746 galaxy in Virgo ; magnitude: 11 size: 6.8' x 1.0' ; fairly bright and elongated, edge on with bright conspicuous central bulge,tapers to thin tips. With averted vision and good seeing, a thin dsrk dust lane can be glimpsed, running along the bulge. A dim star is on one of the tips. I used a 10mm Ethos at 198x with my 14.5 Starstructure f/4.34712

Uwe Glahn
May 23rd, 2022, 04:47 PM
Beautiful sketch Howard.

I found several notes with my former 16-inch but only one with the 27-inch. Impressive galaxy at all.

sketch: 16", 257x, NELM 7m0+, Seeing II
4715
home (http://www.deepsky-visuell.de/Zeichnungen/NGC5746.htm)

Don Pensack
May 24th, 2022, 05:51 PM
View with 12.5":
med.size, med.faint brightness, edge-on streak, moderately brighter ctr bulge, long and thin, nice! (one of my Virgo favorites)
(I'll often include nice or wow when I add a galaxy to my favorites list. This is one of them).
On a 1-10 scale with 10 being the very hardest galaxy to see, this was a 5 in the 12.5".
[Yes, I know--32cm is a "finder scope" for a lot of you guys.]

Werner_B
June 6th, 2022, 08:41 AM
Hello Howard

This property is also one of my favorites. Very easy to search and remember.
The NGC5746 is a very nice selection that can even be expanded.
I drew this galaxy as a duo with the NGC5740 and as a triple with the even fainter NGC5738.
With these two drawings I also started an object of the month in a German Astro forum with the title:
West of 109 Virginis, so near and yet so wide.
(German: Westlich von 109 Virginis, so Nah und doch so Fern).
My dates are on the drawing.

The double / NGC5746 and NGC5740
4728

The triple / NGC5746, NGC5738 and NGC5740
4729