WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 59To help you with that goal, I’ve
selected 22 of these seldom-observed
objects visible during fall and spring
evenings from northern latitudes. The
winter and summer skies contain few
ellipticals because of the presence of the
Milky Way, which effectively blocks our
view of any that lie behind it. I’ve listed
them in order of their right ascensions,
so those appearing later in the story also
rise later at night. Note that the positions
of any of these objects in Virgo are plot-
ted on the chart on pages 54-55.In the fall
The first object on our list, NGC 147
in Cassiopeia, is a satellite galaxy of the
Andromeda Galaxy (M31), but not one
of the two bright ones nearest it. To find
NGC 147, move 1.9° west from magni-
tude 4.5 Omicron (ο) Cassiopeiae.
Look carefully for this challenging
object. At magnitude 9.5, it seems bright
for a galaxy, but that light is spread over
an area 15' by 9.4'. NGC 147 is a dwarf
elliptical without much apparent struc-
ture. When you do see it, you’ll notice an
oval halo a bit brighter than the back-
ground glow. The galaxy is ever-so-
slightly brighter toward the center, so
that isn’t a foreground star.
Not quite 1° east of NGC 147, you’llfind magnitude 9.2 NGC 185, which is a
dwarf spheroidal galaxy. It touts a higher
surface brightness than its companion,
although it’s a bit larger, measuring 14' by
12'. A 12-inch telescope reveals an oval
halo with a bright core that spans two-
thirds of the galaxy’s diameter.
Our next targets are easy to find. Just
locate the Andromeda Galaxy, and look
0.6° northwest of its core. Magnitude 8.1
NGC 205 shines as brightly as M31’s
other easy-to-see companion, M32.NGC 205, however, is nearly three times
larger (19.5' by 12.5').
M32 lies 0.4° due south of the heart of
M31. It also glows at magnitude 8.1 and
spans 11' by 7.3'. I’ll forgive you if you
choose not to spend too much time
observing this pair. After all, M31 is hard
to beat.
Now we come to a deep-sky object
that’s a perfect target for a clear
Halloween night: Mirach’s Ghost (NGC
404 ) in Andromeda. Amateur astrono-
mers call it that because it lies only 6.8'
from 2nd-magnitude Mirach (Beta [β]
Andromedae). As you might imagine, a
magnitude 10.3 galaxy next to a star that
bright is pretty difficult to see. This
S0-type galaxy — one that has the disk
shape of a spiral galaxy but no spiralOF ALL THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP SKY,
perhaps those most often overlooked by amateur astronomers are
elliptical galaxies. And while it’s true you won’t see spiral arms,
star-forming regions, or dust lanes, being patient and picking out
the details that are there definitely will make you a better observer.DIE
TM
AR^
HAG
ER
NGC 404
NGC 147 NGC 205
BERNHARD HUBL ADAMBLOCK/NOAO/AURA/NSFANTHONY AYIOMAMITIS