Galaxy Trios (31 Photos)
I have annotated the photos to identify the three galaxies listed on the Galaxy Trio page of Galaxy Groups and Clusters, the guide for this observing program.
Key to information below each photo: Scope (see Notes) / Date / Time (UTC)
Click on the photo to see a larger image.
1. NGC 5801
SC 2 / 2020-05-18 / 02:18 There is another nice trio of galaxies that share a similarity in this frame. Drop straight down from NGC 5801 and you see what appears to be an edge on galaxy. That is PGC 160375. Drop down a bit further and take a slight jog to the right and you see another. That is PGC 160378. Finally, steer back to the left a bit and drop the near the bottom of the frame. The large galaxy there is NGC 5809.
2. NGC 5916
SC 2 / 2020-05-16 / 03:50 Two other interesting trios, but not galaxies. Look under the crook of the trailer associated with the NGC 5915. There are two “rows” of three stars each. These do not turn up on a Tycho catalog plate solve. But in Sky Safari, you can get their numbers (dozens of digits long!) in the GAIA catalog.
3. NGC 5208
SC 2 / 2020-05-17 / 04:49 I have annotated the trio, but there are two other conspicuous galaxies in the frame as well. NGC 5210 is at about 8 o’clock. I first that it looked like a globular cluster, but it is a galaxy. PGC 47640 is the smaller galaxy to the lower left of NGC 5208.
4. NGC 4326
SC 2 / 2020-05-16 / 02:10 At about 4 0’clock in the frame, there are two stars that look something like two eyes, lying on an almost horizontal line. The left star is SAO 119365. [SAO 119365 / NGC 4326 / Star Unit Ratio = 1,250,000]
5. NGC 3991
C 3 / 2020-05-27 / 22:08 Just below the NGC 3944 annotation are two galaxies. The one this is more edge-on and leftmost is NGC 3966. The rounder galaxy at the right and slightly lower is NGC 3986.
6. NGC 5150
SC 2 / 2020-05-16 / 03:56 To the left and a bit down from NGC 5153 is a bright star that looks almost identical in size (in the photo, not in reality) as NGC 5153. It is SAO 181675. [SAO 181675 / NGC 5152 / Star Unit Ratio = 364,864]
7. NGC 5981
C 3 / 2020-06-01 / 03:33 NGC 5981 is roughly “pointing” up and to the right toward PGC 55561. To the right and slightly up from NGC 5981 is NGC 5976.
8. MESSIER 105
SC 2 / 2020-06-01 / 23:13 The bright star to the right and above M 105 (the brightest in the frame) is SAO 99280. [SAO 99280 / M 105 / Star Unit Ratio = 90234]
9. NGC 3202
C 3 / 2020-06-01 / 22:13 The bright star to the right of the NGC 3202 annotation is SAO 43276. [SAO 43276 / NGC 3202 / Star Unit Ratio = 1,000,000.
10. NGC 6119
C 3 / 2020-06-01 / 22:18 If you look carefully at NGC 6119 you will see a smaller galaxy just next-door, at about 5 o’clock. That is PGC 57837, at mag 15.3.
11. NGC 4613
C 3 / 2020-06-01 / 22:08 IC 3626 at mag 15.9 is lurking in the frame, near the bottom right, about three quarters of the way over. It forms a small triangle with two dim GAIA stars.
12. NGC 4278
SC 2 / 2020-06-01 / 22:03 The galaxy in the middle of the top of the frame is NGC 4274. The galaxy in the upper right hand corner is NGC 4245.
13. NGC 7273
SC 2 / 2020-06-03 / 04:08 This photo shows a lot of star trails, unfortunately. However, if you look to the right edge of the frame, you can make out two additional galaxies. The one near the center of the right side is UGC 12007. Farther up is an edge-on galaxy, NGC 7264.
14. NGC 5076
SC 2 / 2020-06-05 / 00:04 The bright star to the right of NGC 5077 is SAO 157849. [SAO 147849 / NCG 5022 / Star Unit Ratio = 400,000]
15. NGC 4716 A
SC 2 / 2020-06-15 / 3:40 There are two NGC 4716’s. A is shown here. B is much smaller and rides close of A’s right side. I was unable to identify it in this photo. In the upper right corner is a nice “flatty,” IC 3826.
16. NGC 6607
C3 / 2020-06-20 / 04:13 Just to the right of the NGC 6607 annotation, you can barely make out NGC 6601 just below a faint star.
17. NGC 7270
C 3 / 2020-06-20 / 04:23 On review, I think I caught an error in my annotations. NGC 7271 and NGC 7270 should be reversed.
18. NGC 6927
C 3 / 2020-06-20 / 04:19 My plate solved photo did not match the catalog descriptions on the Galaxy Trio page (p. 113). The targets are listed as NGC 6927 / NGC 6928 / NGC 6929. Two different plate solvers identified a trio of galaxies in close proximity as NGC 6927, NGC 6928, and NGC 6930 (in the constellation Delphinus). Several star atlas searches indicated that NGC 6929 is some distance away, in the constellation Aquila. I used NGC 6930 in my entry.
19. NGC 7463
C 3 / 2020-06-22 / 02:41 The prominent galaxy to the right of the NGC 7463 annotation is UGC 12313.
20. NGC 7499
C 3 / 2020-06-22 / 02:43 If you look closely at the space between NGC 7501 and NGC 7499, you can see three small points of light, not quite in a straight line. They are the galaxies (bottom to top) PGC 3976731, 85395, and 1325409. All are near the limiting magnitude of this scope.
21. NGC 5613
C 3 / 2020-06-22 / 00:26 If you look carefully you can find two other galaxy trios in this frame. At about one o’clock, there is a large triangle made up of galaxies (left to right) NGC 5590, NGC 5589, and NGC 5579. Harder to discern is another triangle at about 11 o’clock. It is closer to the center of the frame that the first triangle and looks sort of like an upside down chevron. It contains the galaxies (left to right) PGC 51477, PGC 51470, and PGC 51464.
22. NGC 7016
C 3 / 2020-06-22 / 02:30 The bight star at the top of the frame is 24 Capricorn. [24 Capricorn / NGC 7016 / Star Unit Ratio = 1,152,174]
23. NGC 7445
C 3 / 2020-06-22 / 02:36 The three annotated galaxies were not easy to identify. All three are between mag 15.3 and 15.8. Given the noisiness of the photo, they blended into the star field very easily.
24. NGC 3280
C 3 / 2020-06-22 / 21:26 I was able the discern the three galaxies, NGC 3280 A, B, and C, but was unable to figure out which was which. So the single annotation reads “NGC 3280 A B C”.
25. NGC 2929
C 3 / 2020-06-22 / 22:09 If you think of the three galaxies that are annotated as a line, and follow that line up and to the left, you will encounter a bright star about two thirds of the way up. That is SAO 80939. [SAO 80939 / NGC 2931 / Star Unit Ratio = 1,512,605]
26. NGC 7769
C 3 / 2020-06-23 / 03:58 NGC 7771 and NGC 7770 appear very close in the photo … and they are. Both stand at about 210 million light years away from our solar system.
27. NGC 7778
C 3 / 2020-06-23 / 04:04 There is a large galaxy, actually the brightest in the frame, just to the left the the NGC 7781 annotation. It is NGC 7782.
28. NGC 7530
C 3 / 2020-06-23 / 02:51 Above the “C” in the NGC 7532 annotation, about three fourths of the way to to the top of the frame, you can see dim NGC 7546. At about 8 o’clock from there, you can see the brighter NGC 7556.
29. NGC 2854
C 3 / 2020-06-22 / 23:28 I discovered annotation typos on further examination. In all three annotations, I incorrectly entered NGC 27nn, whereas it should read NGC 28nn. The brightest star in the field, above the NGC 2856 (corrected) annotation, is SAO 42825. [SAO 42825 / NGC 2856 (corrected) / Star Unit Index = 197,183]
30. NGC 2872
C 3 / 2020-06-24 / 21:56 A number of photos in this collection are grainy or show star trails. This one is not too bad. Indeed, what I first thought might have been star trailing turns out to be a discernible double star — Herschel 811 or WDS 09245+1100. Both stars are about mag 11. You can find them almost directly down from the “3” in the annotation for NGC 2873, near the bottom of the frame. They appear like two dots adjacent to one another.
31. NGC 7699
C 3 / 2020-06-25 / 03:44 The bright star to the right of the NGC 7699 annotation is SAO 146765. [SAO 146765 / NGC 7700 / Star Unit Ratio = 1,680,000]
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