Sky and Telescope - January 2017 - 59

data for galaxies in the Perseus Galaxy
Cluster, visit https://is.gd/PerseusGC.

core. About 40″ northwest, its smaller
neighbor NGC 1277 is elongated eastwest. It, too, sports a brighter central
area but conditions must be favorable
to see it as other than a uniform haze.
Overall, however, the smaller galaxy
appears slightly more vivid. These two
aren't physically connected; NGC 1277
lies about 50 million light-years closer.
The northern corner of the galactic
box contains the most difﬁcult member
of the pattern. The small, faint oval of
MCG +7-7-61 requires averted vision
to detect. NGC 1273 forms the west
corner of the box. It's mostly round
with a slightly brighter core. In three
dimensions, this house would be very
misshapen, with only NGC 1275 and
NGC 1273 nearly the same distance
from Earth.
Framed within the box is the most
distant galaxy in the ﬁeld, NGC 1274,
but its relatively high surface brightness
makes it fairly easy to detect. Look for a
northeast-southwest elongation with a
brighter core that becomes obvious with
averted vision.
When exploring rich galaxy clusters,
the observer is tempted to ignore the
stars and navigate imagined shapes
made of galaxies alone; galerisms replace
the asterisms. If we back away, the
house galerism takes the form of the
body of a kite with a tail trailing off to
the west from NGC 1272. Following
the tail, we come ﬁrst to NGC 1270.
It's small and round with a brighter
core. A step 2½′ to the west lands us at
NGC 1267, paired with its neighbor to
the north, NGC 1268. Both are faint;
NGC 1267 is somewhat easier and is
brighter toward its center. NGC 1268
appears more uniform. A third galaxy,
much more challenging, is PGC 12316,
which makes the apex of a westward
facing triangle with the two NGCs and
appears small and round. It's just barely
detectable in my 30-inch Dob.
You'll need a lot of aperture to follow the tail much further. To the west
is a clump of three galaxies that, with

3h 22m

3h 20m

3h 18m

3h 16m

3h 14m

+42°

tmYou'll need
a
m
3h 10
3h 08
good scope
and

3h 12m

steady seeing to
appreciate the
three craters on
southwestern
Mare Tranquillitatis that honor the
crew of Apollo
11. Armstrong,
the largest, is64
km across.

PERSEUS

1265
IC 312

Star magnitudes

* To view a table of positions and other

1275
1257

1293 1283
1294
Label with1282
shadow1271

1224

1250

7
8
9
10

Label with shadow

+41°
Label with shadow
50 km
IC 292

averted vision, I detected as just a single
has a star superimposed on it or such
wisp of faint nebulosity. The brightest of a bright stellar core that it's easily misthe three is PGC 12294. A little easier
taken for a star.
We'll end this tour with two pairs of
and further west ﬂoats PGC 12254, an
galaxies, the ﬁrst of which lies 9′ southevenly illuminated oval that seemed
TIP
BOX1275.
STYLED
2 WAYS
east
of NGC
bright by comparison.
NGC 1282
and NGC
NGC 1260, the brightest in a triangle 1283 are just 2′ apart on our sky and
º In case
you're
of galaxies, lies about 6′ southwest of
similar
in brightness.
In reality, about
looking
forlight-years
ideas
PGC 12254. NGC 1260 appears elon129
million
separate the two.
for both
an observing
list, cores.
gated east-west and shows a brighter
They
have brighter
note
31farther
lunar east to locate a
core. Its neighbor to the southwest,
Movethat
15½′
features are named for
comparable
pair,
NGC 1259, appears more nearly round
NGC 1293 and NGC
women. Here you see Hypatioa.
with a brighter center. I detected the
1294, also just 2′ apart as viewed from
11 for mythological ﬁgures, 8 for
much fainter MCG +7-7-48 with
Earth but more than a hundred lightastronomers royal, and 7 for
years
apart in space.
They too are
simiaverted vision.
Australians.
For something
more
larchallenging,
in brightnessabout
and brighten
toward
Before changing direction, continue
300 features
their
another 8′ southwest to ﬁnd active
arecenters.
named for mathematicians.
There
many appear
more treasures
galaxy IC 310, which seems almost easy
Not
all are
of these
on the in
Moon's
nearside.
this
rich ﬁeld.
While the vast majority
after so many eye-straining targets. It's
of these galaxies are too faint for anyround with a bright core.
thing but the camera, there are several
Backtracking to PGC 12254 and
- in addition to those described here -
turning north-northeast, you'll need
that can be detected visually in amateur
averted vision to sweep up NGC 1264,
TIPglow.
BOX
STYLE
telescopes. Good hunting!
an evenly illuminated
From
there,
º Insame
casedirection
you're looking
for ideas for an observing list, note
it's another 14′ in the
to
that
31
lunar
features
are
for women
at left,obis
IC 312. Elongated northwest-southeast
■ named
Contributing
Editor Here,
TED FORTE
Hypatioa,
for mythological
for astronomers
royal,
and evenly bright, IC
312 is a 11
fairly
easy
servesﬁgures,
from his8 home
near Sierra Vista,
7 for Australians. For something more challenging, about
target. Continuing and
north-northeast
Arizona. He pens a monthly astronomy
300 features are named for mathematicians. Not all of these
another 6′ 20″ you'll encounter the
column for his local newspaper, the
appear on the Moon's nearside.
enigmatic NGC 1265. This galaxy either Sierra Vista Herald.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m

* JANUARY 2017

https://is.gd/PerseusGC http://www.skyandtelescope.com

Sky and Telescope - January 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - January 2017