skyandtelescope.org • JUNE 2020 19
16-inch at the same power I described this lenticular as being
bright with a very bright nucleus. How do you see it?
The spiral NGC 5678 is located 1.5° north-northeast of
NGC 5631, just across the constellation line in Draco. In
the 16-inch it’s very obvious at low power as it’s a Herschel
Class-1 object, or in the “Bright Nebulae” category. After
observing it at 203×, my logbook entry read “bright, large and
oval, with a gradual brightening to a core holding a nucleus.”
I also saw the magnitude-9.6 star SAO 29187 (cataloged as
Aitken 1106) just 2.5′ north-northwest of NGC 5678, a tight
double 2.3′′ apart, with magnitudes of 9.7 and 10.9.
Return to M101 to star-hop to an excellent group of three
edge-on galaxies centered one low-power fi eld to the north. The
closest one to M101, the beautiful lenticular NGC 5422 , has a
bright, elongated core that holds a fairly bright nucleus in the
16-inch. The faint, very elongated halo has a ratio of about 4:1.
William Herschel also rated this beauty a Class-I object, and it
was so obvious that I spotted it while simply sweeping around
M101 at low power without specifi cally searching for a prize.
NGC 5443 , a barred spiral, is bright, large, and elongated
at a ratio of 3:1 in the 16-inch. The core is also elongated
and shows a nucleus. A 15th-magnitude star sits southwest
of the nucleus, and a possible knot is perched northeast.
NGC 5443 is very bright even at low power and can be seen
with a much smaller aperture.
Through the 16-inch NGC 5475 is bright, fairly large,
edge-on, and elongated at a ratio of 5:1. Its small core displays
a nucleus. This spiral is also very easy at 76×.
I believe these three bright edge-on galaxies should all be
included in the Herschel 400 observing list. The list com-
prises targets simply based on catalog magnitudes and, as a
result, many bright but — in my opinion — boring galaxies
are in it, while numerous bright beauties like these threeWilliam Herschel also rated this
beauty a Class-I object, and it was
so obvious that I spotted it while
simply sweeping around M101 at
low power without speciǪ cally
searching for a prize.uTRIPTYCH (Top) Three galaxy types are neatly represented in this
celestial trio: NGC 5484 is an elliptical, NGC 5485 a lenticular, and NGC
5486 a spiral. The three appear to occupy the same corner of space, but
in fact the fi rst two lie at a similar distance of around 100 million light-
years, while the latter is closer at around 72 million light-years.uONE OR TWO? (Bottom) NGC 5238 was once thought to be two in-
teracting galaxies, but careful examination of the galaxy’s rotation curve
reveals that it’s indeed a single object. This irregular galaxy is relatively
NGC 5485: BERNHARD HUBL; NGC 5238: NASA / STSCIclose, located some 15 million light-years away in Canes Venatici.
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