These are our observations of Flat galaxies
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Flat Galaxies Hunt
Got out shortly after 10pm on Sunday night and went until 3am!
My skies were reasonable but not the best. I was getting SQM of 21.0 and NELM of 5.5 but they were very damp skies and I suspected them to be going ‘off’ later on in the observing session.
I had no lists planned so decided to go ‘Flat’ galaxy hunting using the Webb Society's latest Flat Galaxy publication, courtesy of Alvin Huey. I always find thin edge on galaxies more difficult than their quoted magnitude. For example UGC 3696, the integral sign galaxy is quoted at mag 13.5 but difficult enough in a 16” scope from a good sky. For tonight I was using my 600mm driven Dobsonian with Argo-Navis.
Anyway, started off with NGC 5777 in Draco. Quite easy with 8mm Ethos (x340); suspected UGC 9570 in same FOV but couldn’t be certain – need a better sky. Just left the 8mm (x340) in for the rest and the Argo-Navis and ServoCat ‘found’ them ☺.
Then the rest as per the attached sketches (click on them for a better view.)
The only one I really struggled with was UGC 11964 near NGC 7241 in Pegasus. It was the only one where I had to hunt down the correct field stars, tried 13E, 8E and 4.7E. Nearly gave up but in the end confirmed it with the 8mm Ethos - but the sky was getting damper by now (0130 BST) although I was still getting 21.0 SQM but then I have had 21.35 from this location.
I then tried for a couple of exotic PN’s but failed – a better night maybe?
Very enjoyable session.
Andrew Robertson - 22 August 2015
