Object of the Week December 1st, 2019 - NGC 185 - the forgotten neighbour

[Uwe Glahn]

RA: 00h 38m 57.6s
DEC: +48° 20' 14"
Size: 8.0'x 7.0'
Magnitude: 9.3 (V); SB 13.7
Morphology: dSph/dE3; Sy2

The history of the galaxy started "as usual" in the 18th century when William Herschel discovered it in 1787. Interestingly he missed the neighbor galaxy NGC 147 which was discovered by his son John in 1829.

The better the technique, the more interesting became the structureless and faint galaxy. In the late 19th century Keeler was the first who photographed NGC 185 with the (today) famous 36-inch Crossley-Reflector. Nearly 50 years later Walter Baader [1944ApJ...100..147B] resolved the galaxy in individual stars through the 100-inch Hooker telescope at Mt. Wilson during a 4h exposure in 1943. Because of the similar magnitudes of the brightest stars he concluded NGC 185 as a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy and so a new member of the Local Group. He also first describes dark clouds and two globular clusters. Ford, Jacoby and Jenner [1977ApJ...213...18F] later describes, listed and labelled in a nice finder chart 8 globular clusters after Hodge [1974PASP...86..289H] listed 5 GC's. Interestingly it is possible with HST today to resolve the globular cluster itself in individual stars.

Today we know that NGC 185 is the only known Seyfert II with an AGN in its center which is probably the cause of the dark structures near the nucleus. Its distance is around 2.2 MLy and so a little in front of the major Andromeda Galaxy with its 2.5 MLy.

Through a telescope NGC 185 should be visible from up to 4-inch. I listed my observation (only in German) in an observing project around the galaxies of the Local Group. Al (lamperti) stated a thread about the GC's in 2012 which I don't want to miss here. All in all I could detect three globs with my 27-inch. The dark structure should also be visible in mid size telescopes. Frank Richardsen showed me the structure several years ago through his 20-inch. I revisit it with success with my 27-inch where it looks more like a hole. But now it is your turn.

photograph: Bernhard Hubl, 12-inch, LRGB
N0185-1.jpg
link to a labeled (GC) and larger version

sketch: 20", 420x, NELM 7m0+
NGC185.jpg

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

[Raul Leon]

Hi here's my observation from 9/26/2008 ; Ngc 185 dwarf galaxy in Cassiopeia ;magnitude:9.2 ; low surface brightness; member of the local group I used a 10mm Radian eyepiece at 158x magnification with my 14.5 Starstructure Dob f/4.3899B8E31-0446-451F-8EF8-E4C084F88A49.jpeg

[Mark SW]

From a Jim Shields report "NGC 185 in 1944, and Paul Hodge later identified three more candidates. Hodge 2 (not shown) was later determined to be a background galaxy.."Paul Alsings observing page.
Could you please tell me which galaxy it is?
Edit
Saw this from Steve Gottlieb in Sketches & Images
"I wanted to add that object #2 in Hodge's chart has been reclassified as a galaxy -- specifically, LEDA 2318158 = 2MASX J00385452+4828030."

[kisspeter]

I have a 4.3" drawing of NGC 185 from 2002 (54x, 47' field, "Ny" is west):
ngc185-kisspeter.jpg

Somehow NGC 185 was always a detailless object in my mind. I think I haven't even seen it in anything bigger than a 4". Next time I'll try the dark lane in a bigger scope.

[FaintFuzzies]

The cool thing about this local group object is a small set of globular clusters that are visible in amateur telescopes. I'll dig up my notes, which some are still packed in boxes in my garage. I remember seeing at least two globular clusters, namely GC-3 and GC-5.

NGC 185-globulars.gif