http://www.skyandtelescope.com.au 53was needlessly slow when it came to
the publication of his star catalogue.
Having a manuscript of the work,
Newton encouraged Edmond Halley
to edit it, and this unapproved edition
was published in 1712. Flamsteed was
incensed, and he managed to procure
and burn most of the copies — but those
that survived include a column where
Flamsteed’s stars are numbered. How
strange that numbers known worldwide
today spring from the spurious edition
that Flamsteed reviled!
With that historical detour behind
us, let’s use 8 Leporis to help us find our
next galaxy, NGC 1954, which lies 2.3°
east of the star. A roughly staple-shaped
group of twenty 7th- to 9th-magnitude
stars fills much of the space between
8 Lac and NGC 1954, and you can
follow them most of the way to the
galaxy by climbing up the staple’s back
and down its eastern leg. Through the
130-mm refractor at 48×, NGC 1954
shares the field of view with the orange
star at the point of the staple’s leg. At
that magnification, the galaxy is a very
faint, oval glow with a 10th-magnitude
star off its northwestern tip. At 117×
a faint star adorns the galaxy’s edge,
north-northwest of center. The 25-cm
reflector at 220× draws out a second
star, west-northwest of the first and
beyond the pallid face of the galaxy.
Within the galaxy a small, brighter
core hosts a starlike nucleus. The field
of view also acquires a bonus galaxy,
NGC 1957. Its little round form sits off
the opposite end of NGC 1954 as the
10th-magnitude star and at the sameseparation from it. Boosting the power
to 308×, I see NGC 1957’s tiny brighter
heart. These two galaxies also seem to
be related to each other and dwell about
140 million light-years away from us.
Let’s finish with the only ear star
we’ve not yet employed, Iota (ι) Leporis,
a double whose components you can
split through any telescope at low to
medium magnifications. The brighter
star sparkles diamond white, but its
companion to north-northwest is
much dimmer, making its yellow hue a
challenge to detect. Can you?
Although our sky tour has been
all about the ears, it can’t truly be
appreciated until the eyes have it.SUE FRENCH welcomes your
comments at [email protected].NIC 2132NGC 1954NGC 1957Deep sky images reveal the probable
interaction between NGC 1954 and NGC- A faint trail of bridging material
connects NGC 1954’s southern arm to its
neighbour.