Sky and Telescope - February 2016 - 54

OBSERVING

Going Deep

ness (LSB) barred spiral. In my old 13.1-inch Dobsonian
at 113×, it appears as a faint, diﬀ use 4′ × 2′ haze oriented
north-south with a moderately elongated central bar.
In direct contrast, NGC 1832 is a small, tightly wound
barred spiral presented face-on. Star-hopping doesn't
get much easier than this, as NGC 1832 lies only a ½°°
6h 40m

6h 20m

`

M41

6h 00m

-20°

IC 2163
2207

b

2196

LEPUS
2139
Cr 121

CANIS MAJOR
2295

2293

-25°
Star magnitudes

k

1

2217

2292 2280

¡

c

3
4
5
6
7
8

-30°
10

north-northwest of 3rd-magnitude Mu (μ) Leporis. In
my 11-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain, it shows a bright outer
halo measuring 2′ × 1.5′ surrounding a tiny stellar core.
An 11th-magnitude ﬁeld star lies just 1′ to the east, while
a brighter 9th-magnitude star shines 5′ to the northeast.
Rounding out this Leporid selection is NGC 1964, a
moderately tilted 10.7-magnitude spiral galaxy. It, too, is
relatively easy to ﬁnd, as it sits a bit south of the halfway
point on an imaginary line drawn between the bright
stars Beta (β) and Gamma Leporis, or 2° southeast of
Beta. In my 11-inch scope at 113×, it's easily visible as
an elongated 4′ × 2′ misty glow just to east of an acute
triangle of 9th- to 11th-magnitude stars.
Not all the galaxies in this region are "obscure" or
"oﬀ the beaten path." One duo in particular has been featured in NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)
twice over the past decade. The face-on spirals NGC
2207 and IC 2163 form a beautiful interacting pair, their
last grazing encounter only 40 million years ago. What
really sets these galaxies apart is that, from our point of
view, the larger system, NGC 2207, is superimposed on
the smaller, IC 2163, a circumstance that has led to all
sorts of interesting astrophysical investigations, such as
the determination of the thickness of the spiral arms
and the true opacity of the dust lanes. In a mediumsized scope, they form an uneven pairing elongated in

Galaxies in Canis Major, Lepus, and Columba
Object

Type

Surface Brightness

NGC 1744

SB(s)d

13.9

Mag(v)

Size

RA

Dec.

Notes

11.3

7.4′ × 3.5′

05h 00.0m

-26° 01′

LSB

05.2m

-37° 59′

Emission-line

NGC 1792

SB(rs)bc

12.6

9.9

5.5′ × 2.5′

05h

NGC 1808

SB(s)a pec

12.4

9.9

5.2′ × 2.3′

05h 07.7m

-37° 31′

Type 2 Seyfert

NGC 1832

SB(r)bc

12.4

11.3

2.5′ × 1.5′

05h 12.1m

-15° 41′

HSB

NGC 1964

SAB(s)b

13.1

10.8

5.0′ × 2.1′

05h 33.4m

-21° 57′

12.2m

-21° 48′

NGC 2196

SA(rs)ab

13.1

11.1

3.0′ × 2.5′

06h

NGC 2207

SAB(r)c pec

13.3

10.8

4.8′ × 2.3′

06h 16.4m

-21° 22′

IC 2163

SB(rs)c pec

12.4

11.7

3.0′ × 1.2′

06h 16.5m

-21° 22′

SB(rs)0/a

13.4

10.2

5.0′ × 4.5′

06h 21.7m

-27° 14′

44.8m

-27° 38′

NGC 2217

Interacting w/IC 2163

NGC 2280

SA(s)c

13.5

10.5

6.3′ × 2.8′

06h

NGC 2295

Sab sp

13.1

12.7

2.4′ × 0.7′

06h 47.3m

-26° 44′

Triplet w/NGC 2292/3

NGC 2292

SAB pec

13.1

10.8

4.2′ × 2.3′

06h 47.6m

-26° 45′

Interacting w/2293

NGC 2293

SAB(s)0 + pec

13.9

10.7

4.3′ × 3.0′

06h 47.7m

-26° 45′

Angular sizes and separations are from recent catalogs. Visually, an object's size is often smaller than the cataloged value and varies according to the aperture and magniﬁcation of the viewing instrument. Right ascension and declination are for equinox 2000.0.

54

Februar y 2016 sky & telescope
Sky and Telescope - February 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - February 2016
