Hickson 68

12 April 2020, 21:30 – 22:45

Conditions: getting chilly, breeze picking up. Cloud cover increasing gradually. Sporadic flashes of lightning way off in the northeast.

Seeing: Poor to average
Transparency: Poor

The original plan was to photograph a galaxy or two, but as the sun set and patches of haze and cloud began to advance across the sky I abandoned that idea and hauled out the XT10 for an impromptu observing session. It was also an opportunity to put my newly restored wooden garden table to the test. (As I found out on 22 March, balancing Sky Atlas 2000 on a chair is not a practical way of going about things.)

I started with some double stars again, looking at Polaris, Cor Caroli and Izar (Epsilon Bootis). The latter was more challenging than it should have been due to the indifferent seeing, but still an impressive sight with a distinctive orange primary and a very close secondary lurking within the diffraction rings.

M94, galaxy, Canes Venatici
171x. Bright fat oval, like an unresolved globular (as noted previously). Very bright towards the centre.

I then moved over to the eastern part of Canes Venatici to investigate HCG 68, one of the few Hickson Compact Groups within range of my scope. According to sources online, these galaxies are 100 million light years away.

NGC 5353 & 5354, interacting galaxies, Canes Venatici
133x and 171x. A pair of small, very close galaxies, resembling eyes in a mask. Their long axes were angled towards each other, not unlike the 4485/4490 pair (also in CVn), although this pair were more closely matched. The southernmost galaxy (5353) was a little brighter and more condensed than 5354.

NGC 5350, galaxy, Canes Venatici
133x and 171x. Very faint round haze close to bright orange-hued star. In same field as 5353/5354 pair.

NGC 5371, galaxy, Canes Venatici
133x and 171x. Very faint amorphous haze; quite large. A little brighter towards the centre with averted vision.

The observations at 171x were mirrored at 133x: the lower magnification had less contrast, but this was balanced by the surface brightness being concentrated in a smaller area. Either way, these galaxies were a lot easier to see than Stephan’s Quintet (arguably the most famous Hickson group).

The clouds were starting to gather overhead at this point, so I called it a night.

Nature note
Two large frogs in the pond and 1000+ tadpoles!