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Bill Weir
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 06/01/04
Posts: 1299
Loc: Metchosin (Victoria), Canada
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Last night, well after midnight and with the Moon set, I was finishing mopping up the few remains objects in Hercules on the Herschel 2500 list, when I stumbled across an interesting object. On the Uranometria page beside and due south of NGC 6241 were the words Zwicky's Triplet. With my 12.5" the grouping wasn't all that difficult to detect, and at 182X I was able to pick out this grouping as a single object. It took going all the way to 456X before I could break it into two. Look at this image taken from the Arp Atlas http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/frames.html
The image is about 3.7'X 2.9'. I was seeing the two that are side by side. The third galaxy to the upper left by the star, I didn't notice. Then again, I didn't know what I was looking for and expected it to be closer to the other pair. I thought at first it was that star, that is at mid level on the right.
It turns out Zwicky's Triplet is Arp 103 or UGC10586 and in NED the galaxies are NOTE 03, 04, 05. I'm assuming I was seeing 04 and 05. I plan on observing it again the next chance I get and believe I will see the other galaxy now that I know where to look.
I'm curious to hear if anyone else here has observed this group and what you saw. If I'd been paying attention last year, it was one of the objects on the Deep Sky Challenge list at the Mt. Kobau star party.
Also, who's Zwicky?
Bill
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6'' Orion SkyQuest
12.5'' f/5 Custom Truss Dob
William Optics 80mm ZenithStar ED II
f/5 25" newtonian on a giant GEM, any time I want
Observing sessions grand total for 2008, 121.
So far in 2009, 92
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PG Lewis
sage
Reged: 09/25/08
Posts: 204
Loc: ~31.5S NSW Australia
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I believe it's the namesake of this man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Zwicky
And from just a little reading I find it amazing that he's not more well known than it seems.
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Cincinnati, Ohio (~39N, 84.5W)
Currently enjoying the southern milkyway from the mid-North coast NSW, Australia
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astronron
member
Reged: 04/27/08
Posts: 44
Loc: Queensland Australia
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Fritz Zwicky was a great astronomer with a few quirky faults.
From what I have heard he could be very contrary and upset a lot of his fellow astronomers, but a lot of what he said back then has proven to be correct today 
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Ron
16"Truss Newtonian
8" Celestron SCT
15x65 Binoculars
Roll off roof observatory
2 acre dark site
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Bill Weir
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 06/01/04
Posts: 1299
Loc: Metchosin (Victoria), Canada
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Very cool info, thanks.
No observations?
Bill
--------------------
6'' Orion SkyQuest
12.5'' f/5 Custom Truss Dob
William Optics 80mm ZenithStar ED II
f/5 25" newtonian on a giant GEM, any time I want
Observing sessions grand total for 2008, 121.
So far in 2009, 92
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sgottlieb
sage
Reged: 07/22/07
Posts: 343
Loc: SF Bay area
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Quote:
Very cool info, thanks.
No observations?
Bill
I think I've posted these before, but in any case here's what I have, Bill. The notes are with my old 17.5" from 11 years back.
The brightest member of Zwicky's Triplet was immediately picked up at 220x and appeared fairly faint, small, round, 30" diameter, even concentration to a small brighter core and stellar nucleus. The galaxy is located midway between two mag 12 stars 3.0' SSW and 2.8' NNE. Forms a very close double system with a companion 24" SW of center and the third member of the triplet lies 2.4' NE.
I found the close companion a difficult object. With careful viewing the main galaxy was noticed to be elongated ~E-W and with concentration a very small and faint spot was resolved just off the WSW side (26" between centers). At moments both galaxies were encased in a common halo but generally the companion was detached.
The difficult third member is located 2.4' NE of the double system. It was just an extremely faint, very small glow, ~15" diameter, and situated less than 30" SW of a mag 12.5 star.
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Steve Gottlieb
18" f/4.3 Starmaster
Adventures In Deep Space
7500+ NGC/IC Visual Descriptions
NGC/IC Project
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