RA 12 17 30.0
DEC +37 48 31.0

Mag 10.2 Size 19.2' X 2.1'

Type: Flat Galaxy

This week's OOTW is being composed while observing in Hawaii from the Big Island, at a nice spot on a Forest Service road near the Mauna Kea Visitor Center at about 9000' altitude. A group of us are using a nice new Obsession UC 22" provided by Dave Kriege, and it is a wonderful instrument for this (or any other) location. The sky last night was nice, but not spectacular for this location, and I really wanted to report on an object we viewed last night. The biggest problem is that most of our targets last night were featured in previous OOTW'S, but fortunately NGC 4244 had not been used yet!

The Astronomical League defines a flat galaxy as having a diameter larger than 40 arc-seconds and a major to minor axis ratio greater than 7-to-1, so NGC 4244 easily qualifies as belonging to this special galaxy catagory. Read more here...

https://www.astroleague.org/al/obscl...atGalaxiesClub

In the eyepiece NGC 4244 does not disappoint, it is large and bright, long and skinny, and an absolute delight to see.

Http://tinyurl.com/k55mjox

I would say that the galaxy overall had a mottled appearance that was pretty evenly distributed across its surface, had a stellar core, no discernable bulge, and nice pointy ends, one of which has a nice wide double star superimposed upon it.

As always, give it a go and let us know!