I was observing Melotte 111 with a richfield scope when I ran into this galaxy.
While being limited to a maximum power of x63, I tried to make the best of the
observation. This galaxy looked rather faint. I needed to jiggle the scope to set
this galaxy in motion. This technique helped me to determine the real shape of this
beautiful but elusive edge-on galaxy. I would like to repeat this observation in the
future with higher powers of x80 and x120, to see if more details are visible in a
four inch scope. I hope you like the view
Date : May 5, 2007
Time : 22.30UT
Scope : SkyWatcher 102/500
Vixen LV Zoom at 8mm
Power : 62.8
FOV: 47′
Filter : none
Seeing : 2.5/5
Nelm : 5.1
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with a digital tablet and PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.
Rony De Laet
http://www.geocities.com/rodelaet, my personal website.
Rony,
Great sketch of this nearly edge on galaxy.Judging from the star field you sketched this galaxy could be NGC 4559. Nice one.
Frank
Rony,
Great sketch and good catch! It’s always cool to find a surprise object while observing something else. Thanks for sharing your observation!
Jason