Object of the Week November 17th, 2019 - NGC 210, MCG-02-02-081, PGC 2437 – Galaxy in Cetus
R.A.: 00h40m35.1s Dec.: -13°52'26" (2000)
Size: 5.0'x 3.1'
Magnitude: 10.90 (V); 11.90 (B); SB 22.8 Mag/arcsec²
Morphology; SAB(s)b
When I had the opportunity to spend 2 nights on the 82” at McDonald Observatory 13 years ago this week (November 17/18 in 2006), I put together an observing list with as many different types of objects as I could think of, understanding that the field of view of this telescope was 5.5 arc-minutes @ 812X, so it was pretty much a waste of time to be looking at objects too much bigger than this, since you would need to slew the telescope around in order to see the entire thing. NGC 210 seemed like an ideal target because it would fill the entire field of view and had details that are fairly difficult to see in most amateur telescopes. I considered it to be an ideal target for the 82” under those dark Texas skies.
In the process of doing my due diligence for this object, I looked it up on Simbad, only to find that it is listed as “NGC 210 -- Galaxy in Pair of Galaxies”. However, I find no other source that can confirm this… and in all the photos I looked at there was nothing obvious in the immediate area, except for mag 14.3 MCG 2-2-82 and mag 15.6 LEDA 169998, each between 7 and 8 arc-minutes away, and they don’t appear to be likely candidates, at least to me! Perhaps someone can fill in some blanks here… and NED didn’t say a thing about multiple galaxies…
NGC 210 is a barred spiral galaxy about 67 million light-years away in Cetus. It was discovered on October 3, 1785 by William Herschel, and he called it “pB, pS, mbM, resolvable, star 1.5' distant”.
ngc 210 bw cropped.jpg
When I observed this guy in a 20” f/5 dob a long time ago it was bright but small, and obviously elongated. I saw no sign of arms of any kind. I saw no sign of any other galaxies in the field and there was an 8th magnitude star 7 or 8 arc-minutes generally to the west. When in Texas using the 82” it was a completely different story! It was now a large spiral, and the faint outer arms were almost completely separated from the distinctively elongated core. It had an overall mottled appearance, with several HII areas suspected, and the core had a smooth outer edge.
NGC 210 color rotated.jpg
As always, give it a go and let us know.
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