Desert Fire Astronomy

Located nearly 250 million light years away from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus sits a small galaxy cluster.  This cluster, known as Stephan's Quintet, is a popular deep sky object for the advanced visual observer.  This is not an easy cluster to view and requiers at least an 8" or larger telescope to see them under dark skies. 

The cluster consists of five small galaxies known as NGC 7317, NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B, NGC 7319, and NGC 7320.  The galaxies range from 12.4 to an amazing 15!  This means large telescopes are needed to see the individual galaxies and small telescopes will be lucky to see a smudge.  This cluster is very easy to pass over as it is very small compared to most galaxies. 

Finding the clusters:

In a dark sky with my 16" f/4.5 dobsonian I start out using a low power eyepiece, on this evening it was a TeleVue 31 Nagler.  I panned over to the area of where the object in located, finding the near by NGC 7331 (Deer Lick Galaxy).  This galaxy is a fairly large galaxy and can be seen in a moderately dark sky.  After finding the Deer Lick a faint smudge could be see to the right of it.  After finding the faint smudge I moved to a higher power eyepiece, on this evening it was a TeleVue 13 Ethos.  The galaxies in the 13 could become easily visible and two of the five poped right out. 

The large galaxy on the upper left is the Deer Lick Galaxy (NGC 7331).  The white lines lead down to the small Stephan's Quintet cluster.

This is a very challenging object and a very fun one to find as well.  There are a lot of galaxies in this area of the sky.  So go out try to find this on your next dark sky night!

Clear Skies and Happy viewing!

   The Andromeda Galaxy is a well known target among astronomers and a popular target for beginners.  Located about 2.4 million light years in the constellation Abndromeda; this galaxy is the closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way.  Catalogued as M31 in the Messier catalogue the Andromeda galaxy also has two smaller companion galaxies catalogued as M32 and a very faint M110. 

   M31 and M32 can be easily seen in my 80mm refractor under light polluted skies.  M32 shows as a dim fuzzy ball in small scopes and M31 shows as a moderate white ball.  There is also a third galaxy that can be seen from darker skies catalogued as M110.  M110 is a very faint smudge located just south of the larger and brighter M31. 

   All three of these galaxies were easily visable in my 16" f/4.5 dobsonian from a darker light polluted sky at Lake Pleasant, Arizona.  All three galaxies just fit inside my 35 Panoptic with a very nice view.  M110 shows nicely and M31 shows dust lanes from much dark skies.  A 16" dob is not needed to view all three galaxies but it is all about the sky conditions. 

Stay tunned for more observations of more objects.