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Constellation
Report |
 This weekend we move on to the constellation
Leo
Minor. This is not the easiest constellation to find.
First off, you'll need to start from Leo which we
visited recently. Leo Minor is due north of Leo.
Leo Minor is referred to as "the little
lion". There is no classical mythology relating to Leo Minor. In
fact, it was created by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius back in
the 1600's from 18
"un-used stars" between Ursa
Major and Leo.
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Deep
Sky Report
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The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Leo Minor. This constellation caused me to scratch my head for a second. Plain and simple, I really was not familiar with this constellation. There are so many awesome objects in other nearby constellations that I've just overlooked this one. And why not? It contains no Messier's... no Caldwell's. Hmm....Is there even anything init? So... with assignment in hand, I headed out to find out about Leo Minor. It turns out that I've been missing out on a bunch of fine deep sky objects. As you'll see shortly, Leo Minor is loaded with beautiful galaxies of all shapes and sizes.
Our first stop in Leo Minor is a tight double star Beta Leo Minor(mag4.2). This is made up of components of mag4.5 and mag6.5. They are separated by a mere 0.4". This will require steady skies and a bit of magnification to split.
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 Ok, our fist object is a beautiful
Spiral Galaxy NGC3344(mag9.95) This big, bright galaxy is viewed almost perfectly face-on. It spans almost 7' in diameter and has an almost stellar core. I love the delicate detail of the spiral arms. This is the classic look of a spiral galaxy. If you look closely, it almost looks like some stars are being flung off as it spins.
I tried to study this galaxy recently. Unfortunately,
the moon was approaching full and the best I could do was to confirm that I
found it and that it was indeed a spiral galaxy. At just about mag10, you'll
definitely need some dark skies to fully appreciate this object. From past
experience though I can tell you that it is worth your time and effort. Once you
track it down, crank up the magnification a bit so that the galaxy fill at least
1/4 of the eyepiece. In smaller scopes, the spiral arms appear as a haze around
a bright core. In instruments of 10" and larger, the arms begin to resolve
beautifully. This has been one of my favorite "discoveries". Hope you
enjoy it too.
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 Next we'll hit an edge-on
Spiral Galaxy NGC3432(mag11.25) NGC3432 as imaged by Al Kelly This galaxy which spans 6.2'x1.5', is viewed almost perfectly edge-on. Notice the clumping along the edges. This is often a result of star-forming activity in the outer spiral arms.
Simply viewing this galaxy in a smaller telescope
will be about you can expect. You'll definitely want dark skies and a bit
of aperture. Larger scopes will hint at the clumping visible in the
accompanying image.
Checkout this awesome shot of NGC3432 as imaged by Al
Kelly. Al is another astro-photographer who's always pushing the envelope. Spend a bit of time on his site and you'll understand just what I'm saying.
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Next we'll hit cool interacting galaxy pair, Spiral
Galaxy NGC3395(mag12.1) & Irregular Galaxy NGC3396(mag12.2) Who'd have guessed it? With all that room out there, these two galaxies have managed to get themselves into a fender bender :)
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 Next up is a fine face-on
Spiral Galaxy NGC3486(mag10.35) Checkout the dense core and delicate arms of this galaxy.
Don't expect the arms to stand out this clearly though... You'll need very
large aperture and dark, steady skies to get that kind of view.
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 Let's wrap things up with this weeks
Utah Skies Challenge Object, Elliptical Galaxy NGC3158(mag11.85) If you look closely, most of the lights you see in the image are galaxies. NGC3158 is the brightest galaxy in this cluster of galaxies. If you're able to find 3158, you should also be able to see several of the other brighter members. To see more than about half a dozen galaxies you'll need at least 10-12" of aperture and dark skies. How many will you find?
Good Luck!
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