A Duo and a Ghost

Messier 105, NGC 3384 and NGC 3389
Sketch and Details by Jef De Wit

At the eyepiece M105 is only a little bit brighter than nearby NGC 3384. You can ask why Charles Messier didn’t see both galaxies. A look at history gives us an answer to this question.
M105 was not discovered by Messier but by his contemporary Pierre Mechain in 1781. But this discovery remained hidden until 1947 when Canadian astronomer Helen Sawyer Hogg found a notation to it in Messier’s printed catalog. Meanwhile William Herschel rediscovered the galaxy and first published his position. At Hogg’s suggestion the object was included in the Messier list.
NGC 3389, at 12th magnitude, is the little brother of the trio. Some observers at Cloudy Nights Sketching Forum suggest that seeing this galaxy with a 8 cm refractor is a really hard thing to do. So I’m believing now that I observed a little “ghost” in the night sky.

Information: Steve O’Meara’s Herschel 400 & Messier Objects

Clear skies
Jef De Wit

Object Name: M105, NGC 3384 (and NGC 3389)
Object Type: galaxies
Location: Biggekerke, Netherlands (51°29’ north lat. 3°30’ east long.)
Date and time: 5 April 2010 around 21.00 UT
Equipment: William Optics Zenithstar 80 FD
Eyepiece: 7mm Nagler T6 (magnification 79x)
FOV sketch: approx 30’
NELM: 5,5 mag
Medium: graphite pencil HB/n°2 and 8B, blending stump and cotton swab, printing paper, scanned and inverted, some cleaning up was made with Paint