Wednesday, January 03, 2018

imaged NGC 4388 (Halifax)

The Burke-Gaffney Observatory imaged edge-on galaxy NGC 4388. Located in Virgo, this spiral has some interesting structure near the core. Large diaphanous disk. One of the RASC Finest NGCs.

RASC Finest galaxy NGC 4388 in luminance

Luminance only, 60 seconds subexposures, 10 stacked shots. FITS Liberator, Paint.NET. North is up; east is left.

There is a triangle of small and very faint fuzzies north (above) the big spiral. SkyTools 3 Pro shows two of these, PGC 40611 to the east (left) and PGC 40577 to the west. The southern one is not IDed.

NGC 4387 is the bright but small oval elliptical to the extreme north (at the top edge of the frame).

To the north-west, near star GSC 00880-0593, is a faint round smudge: LEDA 169262.

Diffuse IC 3303 is to the west-north-west of NGC 4388. It looks like a canted spiral to me; ST3P says it is a lenticular.

PGC 40519 is the somewhat large but very faint oval to the west-south-west.

The brighter, smaller concentration further along is LEDA 169248.

To the south-east there is a large, round, but very dim ball. This is MCG 2-32-45.

And to the north-east, far away, is a small oval fuzzy: LEDA 169283.

First viewed NGCs 4388 and 4387 back in May 2013.

Sometimes Messier galaxies 84 and 86 with NGCs 4387 and 4388 are described as large face. NGC 4388 is the mouth and 4387 is the nose. M84 and M86 are to the north, out of frame.

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Tried imaging again on 23 Mar '20. No better...
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Wikipedia link: NGC 4388.

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