2 Attachment(s)
Object of the week, Jan 17, 2021 - Arp 9, NGC 2523
Object of the Week, January 9, 2021 – Arp 9, NGC 2523
Barred spiral galaxy in Camelopardalis
RA: 08 15 00.2 Dec: +73 34 44
Size: 2.9 x 1.7’ Mag: 12.6b
Since I’m revising my Arp book, I’ve decided to pick one of objects on this list. For this week, NGC 2523 (Arp 9) is a pretty ring barred spiral galaxy in Camelopardalis. Arp picked this galaxy for his list for the split arm, which is on the north side.
I picked this object because of the beautiful ring structure in a barred spiral galaxy and would love to see this again with a large telescope with a Zeiss eyepiece. I’m pretty sure that I would pick it up with a 25” or larger telescope under very dark skies. As a bonus, there is a nice 14th mag edge on galaxy with a visible dust lane about 9’ east.
The last time I looked at this galaxy was more than 15 years ago with my 22” with Tak LE and Pentax XL eyepieces.
My notes are as follows:
22" @ 305, 327 and 458x - This is a nice barred spiral galaxy with a sharp stellar nucleus. The west arm pointing north is only faintly visible as a brightening of the edge. 2:1 elongated patch with a central bar perpendicular to the major axis of the halo. PA = 30 and about 2.5’ long. Bar is about 1’ long and PA = 120ยบ. Did not detect the split, which is the north arm.
DSS image
Attachment 4175
Eyepiece rendition with my 22” at 305x
Attachment 4176
Links to photos taken by amateur imagers.
http://bf-astro.com/ngc2523/ngc2523big.htm
http://www.caelumobservatory.com/obs/n2523.html
As always, give it a go and let us know.