This report is a day late because on Sunday I was in Death Valley, California, observing this amazing Hickson galaxy group! This remote observing location is well away from any cell phone or internet coverage, so my report just had to wait.
This 5-galaxy group has to be one of the more spectacular Hickson's, and is impressive in telescope of all sizes. The (3) brighter members have magnitudes all in the 12's and the other (2) members are in the 14's, but even the dimmer members have a decent surface brightness, so all are pretty easy to see. NGC 5350 is the anchor of the group and it is easy to see that it is a face-on spiral. The others, to my old eyes, are of indeterminate type... and they all turn out to be lenticular, which only means that they could be just about anything, see...
When you include nearby NGC 5371 (a bonus object), itself a more impressive spiral galaxy than any of the others in that area, this 'new' group is known as The Big Lick galaxy group, and in a low-power eyepiece all 6 galaxies can be seen in the same FOV! Spectacular! I was also able to just glimpse a 7th galaxy in the field, that being PGC 49480 (UGC 8841, MCG 7-29-18, mag 15.3). To round out the magnificent view, there is an orange star in the field, just bright enough to add to the ambiance without hampering the view of the galaxies.
Since I especially like double stars near galaxies, I will point out that there is a nice pair about 1 arc-second southwest of NGC 5358 and another wider pair almost on the line between NGC 5371 and PGC 49480, and these just add to the charm of the big picture.
The internet is full of glorious photos of this group, but this is one of the best, in my view...
... because, if you hover your mouse over the image, all the objects are identified... and look at all the other galaxies in this area... but they are all mag 17+, so probably not on the to-do list for most of us.
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