Object of the Week, April 27 2014 - MAC 1242-1128 B/C/D -Collinear Trio of MAC galaxies
MAC 1242-1128B/C/D
RA: 12 42 40.3
Dec: -11 28 36
Mags: all three are listed as mag 16
Length of the three collinear galaxies = 0.9’
Several years ago, I was looking to add some challenging, but observable galaxy trios to my galaxy trios observing guide. One nice source of really obscure trios is the Galaxy Zoo forums, specifically the Triplets thread. This is where I found this object, among many other tough trios.
Since the skies were pretty good for my backup observing site, Blue Canyon, I decided to go a little deeper and try this object with my 22”. I was a bit surprised that I actually was able to observe all three objects.
I wrote some pretty simple observing notes, so they may be a bit short. All three were very faint, very small round collinear glows. Each is about 0.1’ across. 0.9’ long. Observed with my 22” reflector at 230, 255, 328 and 383x.
Hope that you enjoy this object, despite that you will need a pretty big scope to see it. I will select a more common object the next time around.
The nice thing about this object is that it is just 40’ ENE of M-104, the Sombrero Galaxy. So you can just hop over there once you are done with this object.
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