These are our observations in Lynx

• NGC 2683 in Lynx

  Took this last night, pity the moon was high as it added quite a bit of noise to the picture. A single shot, 500 second, FLI full frame camera from back garden observatory Northampton. Not quite as good as the Hubble shot!!

  

  Image Details

  • Telescope: AG14 Orion F 3.8
  • Camera: FLI Microline Camera

  Richard Weatherley - (8 April 2022).

• NGC 2419 in Lynx

  The generally cloudy weather of recent weeks gave few possibilities for imaging, so on the odd cloudless evening, I will tackle a subject that I can capture in a single evening. The enclosed image is of NGC 2419, The Intergalactic Wanderer, a globular cluster that has proved to be something of an enigma to understand.

  

  NGC 2419 was discovered by William Herschel on December 31, 1788. It differs from most other globular clusters in that it is so distant from the centre of the galaxy that it was thought to be not in orbit about the galaxy and thus earned the nickname 'The Intergalactic Wanderer'. Studies of it now reveal that its orbit takes it out beyond the Magellanic Clouds and it takes three billion years to make one trip around the galaxy. It is at a distance of about 300,000 light-years from the solar system and at the same distance from the galactic centre. It presents a dim disc 4.5' across and has a magnitude of around 10. The brightest foreground stars in this image are around magnitude 8 but the brightest individual stars in the cluster itself are around magnitude 15.

  Image Details

  The data comprise 15 x five-minute sub-frames of RGB captured on the evening of 5th February 2021.

  • Telescope: 200mm Ritchey-Chretien at 1660mm focal length.
  • Camera: QSI 683 with Astrodon filters and a Lodestar as an off-axis guide camera.
  • Mount: Skywatcher EQ8.

  David Davies - (18 March 2021).

• Observational Sketches

  Dale Holt recently sent me a large selection of sketches, for which I have to thank him. I've taken the liberty of selecting a few that I find interesting because of the process they show.

  NGC 2283 in Canis Major

  The first is Dale's pencil sketch of this galaxy showing his annotations. He's back to using his 505mm Newtonian with an analogue Watec 120N+ camera.

  

  Next Dale's reversed the first sketch to provide a light on dark sketch that can help detail pop out. It's perhaps a better representation of what you see in an eyepiece of a really large scope with nice skies.

  However Dale's using Electronic Assistance (EA) here to view on a monitor under (as he mentions in his notes) hazy British skies. I expect that's what he's going to talk about at our Annual Meeting in Cambridge this summer when he "goes deep on the cheap".

  

  I couldn't resist comparing that view to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). I think that Dale's capturing a fair amount of the detail in the image below, especially around the bar. The Digitised Sky Survey (DSS) isn't as detailed as Dale's view.

  

  NGC 2683 in Lynx

  The final sketch I'd like to present represents a change in drawing technique. Dale says that he found this galaxy stunning and decided to use pastels on black paper as opposed to my usual graphite on white. It has a much softer feel than the pencil sketches.

  

  James Whinfrey - (4 March 2019).

• A Fantastic Arp in Lynx

  Had a great observation last night 😀

  Wow! what an interesting and unusual pair of interacting galaxies making up this Arp 143 is a member of the class 'Material Emanating from E Galaxies'. The Atlas note says "diffuse counter filament".

  

  The north galaxy (bottom) is NGC 2444 and the very strange beast to the south is NGC 2445. The two galaxies appear to flow into one another. There is a lot fine detail visible in the image on my CRT monitor.

  The little spiral near the lower left of my sketch (northwest) is CGCG 206-22.

  NGC 2444 is mag 14.2 NGC 2445 is mag 13.9. I made the sketch on Jan 28th 2017 using the 505mm mirror and cooled Watec 120N+ deep sky video camera. N is down in the sketch.

  Dale Holt - (29 January 2017).

• IC Galaxies around NGC 2340

  On you Webb Society web site you talk about NGC 2340 and the other nearby galaxies. Then you ask for some input. I checked my old observations and I will give them below. I did not include the two brighter galaxies NGC 2332 & 2340.

  IC 458

  3/28/87 17.5" 12mm

  Seen w/ direct vision, roundish, diffuse, similar in size & slightly fainter than IC 464, brighter than IC 461, star very close to southern tip.

  3/16/91 12.5" 12mm

  Direct vision, roundish, diffuse, star on southern tip.

  1/10/2000 12.5" 12mm

  AV/1, slightly ellip, diffuse, even brightness throughout, star on southern tip.

  IC 459

  3/28/87 17.5" 12mm

  NOT SEEN

  IC 460

  3/28/87 17.5" 12mm

  AV/1 best, appears almost star-like, very faint thin diffuseness surrounds a brighter very compact core.

  1/10/2000 12.5" 12mm

  AV/2, very close to a star on it's NP edge which tends to "wash out" this galaxy. It is small, round, diffuse, even brightness throughout.

  IC 461

  3/28/87 17.5" 12mm

  AV/1, very diffuse patch of light, even brightness throughout. There is a faint star following which is brighter than the galaxy.

  IC 464

  3/28/87 17.5" 12mm, 10mm.

  12mm= Direct Vision, elliptical, possibly very gradually brighter towards the middle. 10mm= I now see a very compact little brighter core.

  3/16/91 12.5" 12mm

  Direct vision but faint, roundish, diffuse, brighter very compact core.

  1/10/2000 12.5" 16mm

  While observing NGC 2340 I soon noticed IC 464 in my field. It was seen with AV/1, a little elliptical shaped, diffuse, very small, patch of light, has a slightly brighter star-like core which "comes & goes".

  IC 465

  3/28/87 17.5" 12mm

  Direct Vision, slightly elliptical, diffuse, even brightness throughout, about the same size as IC 464 but slightly brighter.

  3/16/91 12.5" 12mm

  AV/1, small, round, diffuse envelope surrounds a slightly brighter star-like core.

  Ron Morales - (19 February 2016).

• Lots of galaxies near NGC 2340

  Dale Holt was quick out of the blocks with a sketch of this month's galaxy, NGC 2340, observing the field on 2 February 2016! He then sent the resulting sketch to Owen Brazell with this note.

  Dale's Comments

  I managed to get a look at your recommended galaxy grp in Lynx last night, sky was very hazy when I made my observation around midnight. My fov is rather small so I didn't get the whole group in but I managed to pull out 11 galaxies in total, some very small and quite faint.

  Good fun so thank you for the challenge.

  Kind regards, Dale

  

  I hope that Dale doesn't mind, but I flipped his sketch vertically to match the orientation of the Digitised Sky Survey (DSS) field I've added to the right. When comparing the two I'd be quite pleased with that result, well done Dale.

  Please click on Dale's sketch to see the original.

  Owen's Response

  Dale had noted that he hadn't been able to identify the galaxies other than NGC 2340 in the sketch yet, and Owen obliged with this chart (click on it for the version you can read!) and some comments.

  

  Hm OK Of the main galaxies I think you have NGC 2340, IC 464, IC 458, IC 459 and IC 460. The others are too faint to be in the NGC or IC. This is probably the best chart I can make for your field.

  James Whinfrey - Website Adminstrator.