Hello All

I was observing Abell 426 tonight (Perseus galaxy cluster) and alighted on the field containing NGC 1265 and IC 312. This is the first time I’ve observed either of these galaxies. The night started out reasonably nice but started deteriorating and settled finally on some pretty mediocre transparency. At a magnification of 295x, I found NGC 1265 quite bright with an intensely bright core which overwhelmed the galaxy’s disk. I checked Steve Gottlieb’s notes regarding this galaxy which I am including below:

“NGC 1265 = UGC 2651 = MCG +07-07-052 = CGCG 540-088 = 3C 83.1 = PGC 12287
03 18 15.8 +41 51 28
V = 12.1; Size 1.8'x1.6'; Surf Br = 13.2; PA = 165d

17.5" (1/7/89): very faint, small, round glow. This member of the AGC 426 cluster is located just east of a mag 11 star and has a striking location. Forms a pair with IC 312 6' SSW.

Guillaume Bigourdan discovered NGC 1265 = Big. 20 on 14 Nov 1884 and reported "mag 13.3, 15" diameter, slbM." His position is 5 tsec of RA east and 1.4' south of UGC 2651 = PGC 12287. Steinicke mentions this is the brightest galaxy discovered by Bigourdan.”

Since I’m using an 18-inch telescope, I’m puzzled by the description “very faint, small, round glow”. Also, I didn’t see a bright field star to the west, though there is one about 2.5' south. Looking up the relevant field in Alvin’s “Observing the AGC”, there is no significant star to the west of NGC 1265 on either the DSS image or on Alvin’s accompanying chart. Has anybody else observed this galaxy recently and/or over the years? How would you describe the galaxy? Anyone know of a possible supernova in this galaxy?