Can you ever recall talking with someone, new to astronomy, looking into the
eyepiece of a telescope, trying to see a DSOâ¦.
âLook for the small âsmudgeâ or âfingerprintâ in the view⦠and try
and use averted vision [donât look straight at it]ââ¦
Well, last night, and this morning as I am processing data in one of my images,
I sort of re-visited this experience⦠only in reverse.
My target (NGC-3377) was well centered, and very clear. No problem there.
But there was this âsmudgeâ in the upper right corner of my image. What the
heck was that ??
I checked all the frames, and it was there. But my older images of this target
were not showing it.
AND⦠prior images from last night, AND following images last night, did NOT
have the smudgeâ¦
TheSkyX did not show me anything. I tried a plate solve on Astrometry.net, and
it did not show anything either.
So, I started searching the web for comparison images. I found one that had my
âsmudgeâ, but no ID. So it MIGHT be real !
Then I got the bright idea to check the ESO Online Digitized Sky Survey. I
created an image the same dimensions as my image.
BINGO⦠it really is real !! But what was it ??
Well, since it is real, and I knew where it was, SINBAD to the rescue (sort
of).
I could get a listing of all objects within a min or so of the location, and
see what showed up.
YIKES !! I did not see that much stuff in thereâ¦
But the target was there. It looked like maybe a âLSBâ galaxy known as
UGC-5889.
More research, and some comparable images confirmed my find. It is also known
as NGC-3377a.
More importantly (to me), it is also known as MCG+02-28-007. The listing for
Magnitude was Mag 14. Trully a âLSBââ¦
Now THAT (the MCG designation), TheSkyX could understand, and identify in the
FOV, and at the right location.
Ahhhhhhh. It is a wonderful hobby, and a very complex science, especially when
it comes to identifying âsmudgesââ¦.
You can see my wonderful âsmudgeâ from last night here:
http://www.az-dahut.net/Obs-Log-Sheets/NGC-3377-G-20170222.jpg
David M. Douglass
David@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cell (602) 908-9092
--
See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please
send personal replies to the author, not the list.