NGC 247 and Burbridge’s Chain
Spiral galaxy with background chain if galaxies
Cetus
RA 00 47 08
DEC -20 45 38 (coordinates for NGC 247)
Magnitude 9.1, 14.6, 15.7, 17.0, 14.4 and 15.5
Size: 21.4’ x 6’ to 0.6” x 0.2’
Megastar_NGC247andBurbridgesChain.JPG
Screen shot of Megastar chart, north is up.
Forgive me if this is a repeat of an old OOTW, but searching the site I couldn’t find an instance where NGC 247 and Burbridge’s Chain have been the subject. It just seems like they should have been by now.
I have one observation of NGC 247 and two observations of Burbridge’s Chain to share. The first is with my 28-inch from Steens Mountain:
“Great field! NGC 247 is huge, bright and detailed and worth a sketch on nits own, but with Burbridge’s Chain in the same fov this is irresistible. The faintest galaxy in the chain is magnitude 17 and has a surface brightness of 14.2 so it took some extreme averted vision to barely detect…an added bonus is the ESO galaxy 540-19, a nice magnitude 14.1 galaxy on the other side of 247. Sweet! 253x and 408x, 21.95 SQM.” (south is up in my sketch)
N247_BurbridesChain_crop.jpg N247_BurbridesChain_crop_invert.jpg
My second observation of Burbridge’s Chain was with Jimi’s 48-inch scope a few years ago:
“Terrific view! The faintest member (MCG -4-3-12) is actually a pair of galaxies that I could see as double with averted vision. The small galaxy below the chain (MAC 0047-2023) is slightly brighter than the faint double galaxy. 488x, 21.37 SQM.” (south is up in my sketch)
Burbridges Chain_48inch_crop.jpg Burbridges Chain_48inch_crop_invert.jpg
Burbridge’s Chain is a wonderful series of test objects for different size telescopes, but NGC 247 can look great for anyone under a dark sky and a good scope. I'm visiting Jimi next week and hope we'll get an even better view of these great objects.
"GIVE THEM A GO AND LET US KNOW"
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