{"id":29050,"date":"2022-02-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=29050"},"modified":"2022-03-23T13:18:12","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T13:18:12","slug":"deep-sky-tour-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/2022\/02\/10\/deep-sky-tour-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep-sky tour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Discover the celestial treasures inside Coma Berenices, the Queen\u2019s Hair<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n
1 M64 <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Recommended equipment: Small\/medium or large scope<\/strong>
We start at M64, the Black Eye Galaxy, so-called due to a dark dust lane arcing around one side of its core. To locate M64 manually, start at mag. +4.2 Beta (\u03b2) Comae Berenices. One-degree west is 41 Comae Berenices and 3\u02da west-southwest of this star lies 35 Comae Berenices. Mag. +8.5 M64 sits one-quarter of the way along the line from 35 Comae Berenices to 41 Comae Berenices. Smaller scopes show an elliptical glow with a prominent nucleus. A 150mm instrument reveals the dark patch, but it\u2019s fainter than photos of M64 would suggest; more like a faint arc visible with averted vision though small scopes. A 250mm instrument shows the \u2018black-eye\u2019 best with direct vision at 200\u2013250x power. M64 lies 17 million lightyears away and is inclined at 60\u02da to our line of sight. <\/p>\n\n

2 NGC 4725 <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Recommended equipment: Small\/medium or large scope<\/strong>
M64 sits to the southeast of a large nakedeye open cluster called Melotte 111, a triangular smattering of stars bright enough to form part of the Coma Berenices constellation. The top of the triangle is marked by mag. +4.3 Gamma (\u03b3) Comae Berenices and our next target, mag. +10.1 barred-spiral galaxy, NGC 4725 sits 1.6\u02da west and 0.6\u02da south of this star. A small telescope shows the galaxy as an elongated glow, around 7×5 arcminutes in size, with a small core. A 300mm scope shows the core to be extended in size, its barred nature quite evident. The faint halo surrounds the core, something which becomes evident with larger apertures.<\/p>\n\n

3 NGC 4565 <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Recommended equipment: Small\/medium or large scope<\/strong>
We hop back to the east of Melotte 111 for the edge-on galaxy NGC 4565. This is a real beauty, shining at mag. +9.5. The best way to locate it is to start from Gamma Comae Berenices and head south along the eastern side of Melotte 111. Star-hop to 14, 16 and 17 Comae Berenices, and then head 1.7\u02da east from 17 Comae Berenices to arrive at NGC 4565. A 150mm scope shows a narrow, needle-like streak of light 7 arcminutes long, 1.5 arcminutes wide and aligned northwestsoutheast. A 300mm scope more than double\u2019s the \u2018needle\u2019 length, also is mag. +9.7 NGC 4494, another galaxy but this time an elliptical. This is a distant object, 45 million lightyears away. Its designation is E1-2, just a couple of levels off a sphere (E0). A 150mm scope will show it as a 1 arcminute fuzzy glow. A 250mm scope starts to reveal a revealing a short section of the dark dust lane that runs along its edge.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
M64, the Black Eye Galaxy, was discovered by English astronomer Edward Piggott on 23 March 1779 <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
4 NGC 4494 <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n


Recommended equipment: Small\/medium or large scope<\/strong>
Located 1\u02da west of NGC 4565 north-south elongation in its shape. NGC 4494 appears again like a glowing fuzz-ball through such an instrument, brightening at the centre, where its star-like nucleus can be found. While looking at NGC 4494 through the eyepiece, ponder how it looks in comparison to the other spiral galaxies we\u2019ve seen. Ellipticals can be challenging objects! <\/p>\n\n

5 NGC 4559 <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Recommended equipment: Small\/medium or large scope<\/strong>
Next, head back to NGC 4565 and then 2\u02da north to arrive at our next target, mag. +9.9 NGC 4559. This object can be seen clearly in a small scope but like most galaxies, it benefits from increased aperture. It\u2019s an intermediate spiral \u2013 one deemed as having a structure between that of a regular spiral and one with a barred core \u2013 which lies at a distance of 29 million lightyears. Like NGC 4565, the orientation is roughly northwest to southeast, the southeast end of the galaxy appearing to fade more abruptly than that to the northwest.<\/p>\n\n

6 NGC 4278 <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Recommended equipment: Small\/medium or large scope<\/strong>
We return north for elliptical galaxy NGC 4278. Return to Gamma Comae Berenices and head 1.6\u02da west to locate mag. +6.4, 9 Comae Berenices. Next, manoeuvre 1.1\u02da north and you\u2019ll be in the right vicinity. NGC 4278 shines with an integrated mag. +10.2 and (like NGC 4494) is classed as an E1-2 type elliptical. There are several other galaxies here too, with 12th magnitude NGC 4283 located 3.5 arcminutes to the north-northeast.<\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

This Deep-Sky Tour has been automated <\/strong>ASCOM-enabled Go-To mounts can now take you to this month\u2019s targets at the touch of a button, with our Deep-Sky Tour file for the EQTOUR app. Find it online.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

More online<\/strong>
Print out this chart and take an automated Go-To tour. <\/p>\n\n

Photos: THOMAS HENNE\/CCDGUIDE.COM, CHART BY PETE LAWRENCE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Discover the celestial treasures inside Coma Berenices, the Queen\u2019s Hair<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":29520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"56","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"56","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_56-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_56-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"March-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"March-2022","purple_external_id":"March-2022-56-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"March-2022-56-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000086550||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000086550||","purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.202","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.202","purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.202","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.202","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"075fab74-0a21-4201-866a-899d6c41c40c","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[14],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/6028RD710DQ06Q0A4LMH16X7I85L-rotated.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/6028RD710DQ06Q0A4LMH16X7I85L-rotated.jpg",2048,1488,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/6028RD710DQ06Q0A4LMH16X7I85L-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/6028RD710DQ06Q0A4LMH16X7I85L-300x218.jpg",300,218,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/6028RD710DQ06Q0A4LMH16X7I85L-768x558.jpg",768,558,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/6028RD710DQ06Q0A4LMH16X7I85L-1024x744.jpg",800,581,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/6028RD710DQ06Q0A4LMH16X7I85L-1536x1116.jpg",1536,1116,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/6028RD710DQ06Q0A4LMH16X7I85L-rotated.jpg",2048,1488,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Discover the celestial treasures inside Coma Berenices, the Queen\u2019s Hair","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29050"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29050"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30494,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29050\/revisions\/30494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}