Constellation Report

This weekend we move on to the constellation Draco The Dragon. 

The extended constellation of Draco is shown in the accompanying image (see lines). This very northern constellation goes half way around the celestial pole and the constellation of Ursa Minor, which is partly visible here above of Draco. Distinctive is the trapeze in the lower left part of the image which represents the head of the dragon. In the sky you can find it just north of the constellation Hercules. 
In mid of July it culminates at about 21:30 local time, but because of its northern position it is circumpolar for most observers on the northern hemisphere and thus can be seen most time of the year. 

Draco is the 8th largest constellation, occupying over 1,000 square degrees in the sky as it winds from the Pointers of Ursa Minor nearly to Vega in Lyra. Yet it has no bright stars.

Deep Sky Report

Let's start things off with Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC4236(mag9.6). Located 1.5° WSW of Kappa Draconis, this galaxy is situated in such a manner (almost edge-on) that it's spiral arms are viewed against a background of the galaxy itself. As such, they are therefore quite difficult to see. Located some 10 million light years distant, NGC4236 spans 18.6' x 6.9'. 

This beautiful shot was taken by former Utah Skies Astrophotographer of the Month, Al Kelly from the Davis Mountains of West Texas. Al was imaging through a 17.5" f/4.5 Newtonian Reflector and using an Apogee AP7P camera. 

Next up is the Lenticular Galaxy NGC5866(mag9.9). A lenticular galaxy is essentially a spiral galaxy without the spiral part. These are often quite difficult to tell from elliptical galaxies. It is seen almost exactly
edge-on. Notice the fine dark dust lane in this image.
This galaxy the brightest of a group of galaxies lying roughly 40 million light-years distant. Estimates place NGC 5866's mass to be about 1 trillion solar masses, so it is a considerably massive galaxy. The 5.2' diameter of NGC 5866 corresponds to about 60,000 light-years.
This galaxy is also (sometimes) listed as M102 -- the missing Messier object. You see, there is no object listed at the location Messier wrote down for M102. Some have suggested that this is a duplicate entry of M101. Other have suggested that the NGC5866 could be what Messier meant if he had miscalculated one of his coordinates. Hmmm.... 

This galaxy should be pretty easy to find given it's proximity to a couple of bright stars as well as it's own brightness. Don't expect to see much more than a bright oval shape even with increased aperture.

This shot was taken by Al Kelly through a 32" f/4 Newtonian Reflector

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