Hickson 71

Jim Chandler and I got a chance to observe this little grouping of galaxies on the Saturday night preceding the Eclipse. We were working through Larry Mitchell's list he made up for the TSP Eclipse Party. Nearby to one of his galaxies in Bootes was Hickson 71. I had yet to observe this one so we took a look.

Scope used was my 25" f/5 using 4.7mm (675x) and 3.7mm (858x) Ethos eyepieces.
SQML around 21.4
Seeing and Transparency were both quite good.

Hickson 71 contains four galaxies (IC 4381, IC 4382, PGC 50640, PGC 50641) that fit comfortably in a 6' circle. A 10th mag star and two 12th mag stars make a nice little arc that helps ID the field and provide some star hopping help for the fainter PGC galaxies.

Attachment 5416

As the field slid into view the arc of three stars made chart orientation a breeze. We actually saw the fainter, smaller high surface brightness IC 4382 (mag 15) first. The larger IC 4381 (mag 14) was much softer with a nearly stellar core a hazy outer halo with some mottling. Looked best at 858x.

PGC 50640 (Hickson 71c), mag 16, made a nice little triangle with the two IC galaxies. No detail. Just a little smudge easily held with direct vision.

PGC 50641 (Hickson 71d), mag 17, was the easier PGC to see with a pretty high surface brightness. Nearly stellar with no detail.