Ngc 4244

[Ivan Maly]

12" SCT, ~125-375x. SQM 21.68, seeing bad. The compact knot in the SW-most enhancement was not resolved this time. N approximately up and W to the right here.

2014-03-26 NGC 4244 N approx up W right.jpg

[RolandosCY]

Funny, I sketched this guy last night as well, also with bad seeing....

N4244a1.jpg

[Ivan Maly]

Did you see the dust lane along the N edge of the core? Your sketch is so realistic I am uncertain if the dust lane is there or not

[RolandosCY]

No Ivan, I did not see it. To be honest, because of bad seeing I had to give up some targets I planned for the night. So I' ve got my Sky Atlas 2000 and checked for some galaxies in the superbly placed CVen. I noticed 4244 and the double symbol for 4485/90, so I checked those too. I was impressed by how long it appeared in the eyepiece. This morning when I checked some photos of 4244 I noticed the dark lane but I did not notice it last night. I do believe it should be visible though in nights of steady seeing with 18". Just to give you an idea, the tight fain double almost touching the north side of the galaxy initially seemed to me like a tinu galaxy - I had to observe for quite some time before I realized that the little fuzzy was actually two faint stars. I hope to have another go on 4244 on Wednesday evening, after some high cirrusclouds depart my skies...