skyandtelescope.com • JANUARY 2020 61
ies. A 10-inch scope will easily show
a string of fi ve elliptical galaxies in
a roughly north-south line. A closer
examination of the brightest object in
the middle of that string should reveal
its dual nature. This is the aforemen-
tioned NGC 383 and its smaller com-
panion, NGC 382.
The galaxies in the Pisces Cloud are
nearly all ellipticals or lenticulars and,
as such, have little to no readily visible
structure. Ellipticals are round or oval
and typically have only slight brightness
variations to mark their more con-
centrated centers. Most are composed
primarily of old stars, with little or no
ongoing star formation. Lenticulars are
intermediate between ellipticals and
spirals; they’re more fl attened than
ellipticals but lack prominent spiral
arms. At the distance of the Pisces
Cloud, lenticulars are hardly distin-
guishable from their elliptical brethren.
The southern end of the string
comprises NGC 384 and NGC 385, a
similar-looking pair of ellipticals with
brighter cores. You may fi nd it curi-
ous that Herschel didn’t fi nd these,
as they can be detected in an 8-inch
under optimum conditions. Herschel’s
innovative sweep method allowed him
to systematically survey the sky, but
it wasn’t without its drawbacks. His
method of overlapping sweeps left some
gaps. According to Herschel expert
and author Wolfgang Steinicke, the
method effectively covered only 66% of
the sky. Steinicke goes on to point out
that Herschel discovered 66% of the
objects above his horizon and theoreti-
cally detectable in his telescope. This
match shows an incredible effi ciency,
so we must conclude that NGC 384
and NGC 385 just never fell within
Herschel’s fi eld of view.
The northern end of the string is
home to NGC 380, which is fairly bright
and round with a bright core, and
NGC 379, which is a little more elon-
gated and a bit brighter overall.
High power should expose a fainter
pair of galaxies to the east of the chain,
between NGC 383 and NGC 385.
NGC 386 and NGC 387 are both pretty
faint and of similar size. NGC 386 is a
little brighter; I need averted vision to
see NGC 387 as anything more than
stellar, even with a 30-inch telescope.
Herschel discovered three more
galaxies on the same sweep as his
other Pisces Cloud fi nds. Two of them,
NGC 392 and NGC 410, are consid-
ered offi cial members of the Cloud.
NGC 392, about 45′ north-northeast
of NGC 383, is the brightest in a
group of three galaxies. Its compan-
ions, NGC 394 and NGC 397, are both
rather small and faint. They’re easily
missed and weren’t discovered until1854 and 1866, respectively, both with
the 72-inch at Birr Castle. This small
trio is listed as KTG 3 in the Isolated
Triplets of Galaxies catalog published
in 1979 by Valentina Karachentseva
and collaborators. NGC 410 forms
a pair with NGC 407 about 5′ to the
west-southwest. Herschel described
both as extremely faint and very small.
NGC 410 is larger and rounder, while
NGC 407 is rather elongated and
considerably brighter toward the center.
A third object about 4′ southeast of
NGC 410 and designated NGC 414 is
actually two interacting compact galax-
ies (PGC 4254 and PGC 93079), but this
small, faint spot of nebulosity doesn’t
reveal its dual nature in the eyepiece.
Three small NGC galaxies fl ank
the southern end of the chain. About
6 ′ almost due west of NGC 384 is
NGC 373. NGC 375 is about the same
distance northwest of NGC 385, and
NGC 388 lies 4′ east of NGC 385. All
three are small, faint, round, and easily
overlooked, often mistaken for stars. I
use averted vision to pick them up. I can
eventually hold NGC 375 with direct
vision, but the other two remain elusive.
Extending the chain from NGC 379
almost due north by about 16.5′, we fi nd
NGC 374, a 13.4-magnitude lenticularbetween two 14th-magnitude stars that
fl ank the galaxy to its northeast and
southwest. The core is obscured by a
foreground star, making it appear stellar.
Three more objects complete our
survey of NGCs within 1° of the Pisces
Cloud’s core. NGC 403 lies about 30′
northeast of NGC 383. It’s fairly bright
and an easy catch compared to the
15th-magnitude galaxy 2′ to its south-
east. It’s elongated along the east-west
axis and is very much brighter toward
the center. About 8′ southwest of
NGC 403 is the only spiral on our tour.NGC 399 is rather faint, of even bright-
ness almost to the core, and devoid of
visible spiral structure. Another 7′ far-
ther south is NGC 398, a small, round,
averted-vision object.
The area surrounding NGC 383 con-
tains several non-NGC galaxies that are
within range of mid- and large-aperture
instruments; my astronomy software
identifi es 26 non-NGC galaxies brighter
than 16th magnitude, and 51 brighter
than 17th magnitude within 1° of the
group’s core. A fi ne hunting ground
indeed. Part of the fun of exploring
galaxy groups like the Pisces Cloud is in
the sense of discovery and accomplish-
ment. You have the chance to test your
skills against the famous observers who
went before you. True, you have quite
an advantage in knowing in advance
that there are objects there to fi nd, but
still, imagine the pride of retracing their
steps and perhaps even besting Herschel
and the Birr Castle observers. Think of
the bragging rights!¢Contributing Editor TED FORTE enjoys
retracing the steps of the great visual
observers of the past from his backyard
observatory outside of Sierra Vista,
Arizona. He can be reached at
[email protected].A fine hunting ground indeed. Part of the fun of explor-
ing galaxy groups like the Pisces Cloud is in the sense
of discovery and accomplishment.