Object Of The Week February 14, 2020 ? The galaxies behind M 44
NGC 2624, NGC 2625, NGC 2637, NGC 2643, NGC 2647, IC 2388, UGC 4526
Galaxy Chain
Constellation: Cancer
RA: 08 41 36 (center of M 44)
DEC: +19 35 32 (center of M 44)
Mag: 14.5 and fainter
I wanted to write this OOTW 5 years ago already, when I made my observations of these galaxies, but unfortunately Sky and Telescope dedicated an article exactly to this so I chose a different object then. However, I still think this is a nice challenge so here we go!
My fascination with these galaxies started in 1998, when I was an undergrad student visiting the NRAO in Socorro, New Mexico, to work on VLA data for my graduation thesis. An Indian PHD student and me had discovered an amateur observatory just outside of Socorro and we quickly got permission to visit whenever we wanted and to use the 20? Dobson telescope that they had there. The library of NRAO had a copy of the Uranometria 2000 and I already noticed that several galaxies were plotted behind M 44. However, this was my first time this far south (the Netherlands are at a latitude of 52? north and so far I had only been to the South of France at 45? north) and my first time under a spring sky with such a big telescope. Therefore I spent my precious observing hours on many other interesting objects.
In 2010 I bought my 20? telescope and in 2011 I moved to Spain. Finally, in 2016 I took the opportunity to visit M 44 with the sole purpose of observing these galaxies. And I quickly found that this wasn?t at easy as expected. I had observed galaxies of magnitude 14.5 and fainter before, even going dow to magnitude 17. But trying to see these faint smudges next to the relatively bright stars of M 44 wasn?t easy. In the end I managed to see all NGC and IC galaxies and the brightest UGC galaxy that lie within the boundaries of M 44. There are more and fainter galaxies there but I didn?t try them. A map of them, created with SkySafari Pro on my MacBook, shows all galaxies down to magnitude 17.
Note that it displays NGC 2643 as a non-existent object just south of the east end of the galaxy chain. Instead, it plots IC 2390. SkyTools, however, plots NGC 2643 at the location of IC 2390. The NGC IC list of Wolfgang Steinicke indicates that NGC 2643 is non-existent but that it also may be the same galaxy as IC 2390. I have assumed that it is, basing my observation list on SkyTools.
My observations are
NGC 2624: At 256x a somewhat oval patch of light. NGC 2624 is more clearly visible than NGC 2625.
NGC 2625: At 256x a somewhat oval patch of light. NGC 2624 is more clearly visible than NGC 2625.
NGC 2637: At 256x a very faint glow that was visible about half of the time.
NGC 2643: At 256x a faint, elongated glow.
NGC 2647: At 256x an easily visible oval. Of all galaxies in M 44 I found this one easiest to see.
IC 2388: At 256x almost stellar next to a faint star. Close inspection revealed a faint glow around the galaxy and nothing around the faint star west of the galaxy.
UGC 4526: At 256x visible as a fine needle just north of a faint star.
As always,
"Give it a go and let us know!
Good luck and great viewing!"
Last edited by wvreeven; February 14th, 2021 at 09:02 PM.
Reply With Quote