NGC 1569 (Arp 210, UGC 3056)

Camelopardalis

RA 04 30 49.1
DEC +64 50 53

Type: Galaxy IBm

Size: 3.7’ x 1.8’

Mag: 11.2vmag (13.1mag SB)


Discovered in 1788 by F.W. Herschel with his famous 18.7” Speculum Metal Reflector (~ modern 16” Reflector) he described his new nebula as “pretty bright, small, extended, brighter Nucleus in the middle, 9.5 star 1’ north”

The first look in the data and the historical description shows a “normal” small galaxy. Arp catalogued the galaxy under number 210 which means the subgroup “galaxies – irregularities, absorption and resolution”.

Looking at deep pictures shows the irregularity morphology. And indeed, today NGC 1569 counts as a starburst galaxy with a starburst rate which is 100 times larger than that of our galaxy. The reason for that is the membership to the Maffei 1 Group (IC 342 Group) and the interactions between them.

The results of this interaction are the real interesting issue for us amateur astronomers. The galaxy shows large and bright super star clusters (SSC) mainly two prominent ones – SSC NGC 1569A and NGC 1569B. They belong to the brightest ones (beside e.g. M 82 and NGC 6946) and are in reach of the 10”-12” telescope class. Bigger aperture shows more smaller and fainter SSC.

deep amateur picture (Bernd Gährken)


HST + NIRSPEC SCAM (University of Virginia)


animated gif -HST overlay (Bernd Gährken)


Some visual amateur observations
- sketch with 12", 375x-500x, NELM 6m5+ (Christian Rausch)
- sketch with 16", 488x, NELM 6m5+ (Uwe Glahn)
- sketch with 27", 586x, NELM 6m5+ (Uwe Glahn)


And remember,

“Give it a go and let us know!
Good luck and great viewing!”