Copeland’s Septet

[Allan]

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”.

[wvreeven]

Did you know this was an OOTW? See

http://www.deepskyforum.com/showthre...on-57-Arp-320)

[Jimi Lowrey]

Allen nice observations. I might suggest that if you want to really push your new 32" reflector that you try some Shakhbazian galaxy groups. This is a link to my good friend Alvin Huey,s Shakhbazian list. I would like to here your reports on these challenging groups!

http://faintfuzzies.com/Files/ShkGroups%20v1.pdf

[Allan]

Did you know this was an OOTW? See

http://www.deepskyforum.com/showthre...on-57-Arp-320)

Thanks for that. There is such a wealth of great information here.

[Allan]

Allen nice observations. I might suggest that if you want to really push your new 32" reflector that you try some Shakhbazian galaxy groups. This is a link to my good friend Alvin Huey,s Shakhbazian list. I would like to here your reports on these challenging groups!

http://faintfuzzies.com/Files/ShkGroups%20v1.pdf

Thanks Jimi. One of the reasons for stepping up to the 32” was to enjoy some of the more obscure objects. I will certainly start doing that, now that I have the new dob tuned in. Thanks for the suggestions, I really like Alvin’s work.

[Robin]

Thanks for pointing that out! :-)

Probably most of us noted Copeland's septet when observing NGC 3758, which was an object of the week recently. :-)
I observed them again last night, so I'll add my sketch there.

Clear skies

Robin

[FaintFuzzies]

Thanks Jimi for the plug on the Shk groups. If you are crazy and want an even bigger challenge for your 32", there is the Palomar Compact Galaxy Groups.

http://faintfuzzies.com/Files/Paloma...alaxy%20v1.pdf

Other good stuff at the site.