Sky & Telescope - USA (2020-01)

JANUARY 2020 OBSERVING

Going Deep

60 JANUARY 2020 • SKY & TELESCOPE

as belonging to the Pisces group in their

1931 photographic survey of the area

with the 100-inch Hooker telescope at

Mount Wilson Observatory.

The galaxy group’s popularity as

an observing target was no doubt

enhanced by its inclusion in Halton

Arp’s 1966 Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.

Arp compiled the catalog using photo-

graphs taken at Palomar Observatory

with both the 200-inch Hale and the

48-inch Schmidt telescopes in the early

1960s. Listed as the core of the Pisces

Cloud is Arp 331, one of several “strings

of galaxies” in his catalog — Arp

included eight galaxies in this string.

Located a little more than 3° south-

southwest of Beta (β) Andromedae, or

Mirach, the Pisces Cloud is an inter-

esting stop between the Andromeda

(M31) and Triangulum (M33) galax-

The Pisces Cloud

Object Type

Surface

Brightness Mag(v) Size RA Dec.

NGC 383 Lenticular 13.0 12.4 1.4′ × 1.4′ 01 h 07.4m +32° 25′

NGC 382 Elliptical 12.4 13.2 0.7′ × 0.7′ 01 h 07.4m +32° 24′

NGC 384 Lenticular 13.1 13.1 1.1′ × 0.9′ 01 h 07.4m +32° 18′

NGC 385 Lenticular 12.9 13.0 1.1′ × 1.0′ 01 h 07.5m +32° 19′

NGC 380 Elliptical 13.2 12.5 1.3′ × 1.3′ 01 h 07.3m +32° 29′

NGC 379 Lenticular 12.9 12.9 1.4′ × 0.8′ 01 h 07.3m +32° 31′

NGC 386 Elliptical 12.6 14.3 0.5′ × 0.4′ 01 h 07.5m +32° 22′

NGC 387 Elliptical 13.6 15.5 0.4′ × 0.4′ 01 h 07.6m +32° 23′

NGC 392 Lenticular 12.7 12.7 1.2′ × 0.9′ 01 h 08.4m +33° 08′

NGC 410 Elliptical 12.7 11.5 2.4′ × 1.3′ 01 h 11.0m +33° 09′

NGC 394 Lenticular 12.3 13.8 0.7′ × 0.4′ 01 h 08.4m +33° 09′

NGC 397 Elliptical 13.7 14.8 0.7′ × 0.5′ 01 h 08.5m +33° 06′

NGC 407 Lenticular 12.8 13.4 1.7′ × 0.4′ 01 h 10.6m +33° 08′

NGC 414 Double system 12.9 13.8 0.8′ × 0.6′ 01 h 11.3m +33° 07′

NGC 373 Elliptical 13.0 14.9 0.4′ × 0.4′ 01 h 07.0m +32° 18′

NGC 375 Elliptical 13.0 14.5 0.5′ × 0.5′ 01 h 07.1m +32° 21′

NGC 388 Elliptical 12.5 14.3 0.6′ × 0.3′ 01 h 07.8m +32° 19′

NGC 374 Lenticular 12.7 13.4 1.3′ × 0.5′ 01 h 07.1m +32° 48′

NGC 403 Lenticular 12.5 12.5 1.9′ × 0.6′ 01 h 09.2m +32° 45′

NGC 399 Barred spiral 13.3 13.5 1.1′ × 0.8′ 01 h 09.0m +32° 38′

NGC 398 Lenticular 13.4 14.5 0.8′ × 0.5′ 01 h 08.9m +32° 31′

Angular sizes are from recent catalogs. Visually, an object’s size is often smaller than the cataloged value and varies according to the aperture and magnifi ca-

tion of the viewing instrument. Right ascension and declination are for equinox 2000.0.