After years of disappointed attempts to catch the arms of IC 883 a finally was successful last new moon period.

With 27" and mean AP (1,6mm, 419x) a could see both arms for the first time as if they had never been away. First contact was the SE tail. Approx 40" SE of the center of IC 883 I first saw a stellar spot. Later it began to elongate a little bit but without contact to the main galaxy. This arm seemed to have brighter surface brightness. I could hold it steadily with averted vision. The SW tail was a little bit easier with a wider thickness. It was clearly bound with the galaxy itself.

3' NE I could find another interesting group - a galaxy chain out of five members. The members spread over 4' and there blue mags are between 17,2 and 17,4 - a target for telescopes 20"+.

I would be very interested if there is any experience and observations of the tidal tails, perhaps also with smaller aperture?

27",419x, Seeing II-III, NELM 6m5+
IC883.jpg
home/inverted version