[Lvas] NGC 404 Sketch

[roger ivester]

NGC 404 in Andromeda has always been a favorite galaxy of mine and I have sketched it on many occasions. The following sketch was made this past Sunday night (18-January-09) using a 4-inch Vixen F/9.8 refractor @ 125x. 
 
This galaxy is located only 6 arc minutes NW of bright 2.1 magnitude Beta Andromeda. Due to the extreme glare, close proximity and relative brightness of Beta this galaxy can be difficult to observe. I have discovered that my 4-inch does an extremely good job as it somewhat "diminishes" the glare of Beta. The refractor also has a darker background with improved contrast (as expected) when compared to my 10-inch F/4.5 reflector. I find the overall view of this galaxy much more pleasing in the smaller refractor.  
 
It presents itself as a mostly round featureless soft blur with a "subtle" brighter middle. Brian Skiff notes a stellar nucleus. The edges fade very gradually outwards. This galaxy has been confused as a comet by many observers and has been nicknamed "Comet Komorowski". Ted Komorowski was a local observer from Charlotte NC in the late 60's and one night thought that he had discovered a new comet...only to be disappointed a week later. Norton's and other's did not list nor show NGC 404 during that period. I have a 1959 edition Norton's star atlas that shows only Beta.  
 
Best regards, Roger Ivester 

_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live™: E-mail. Chat. Share. Get more ways to connect. 
http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t2_allup_howitworks_012009
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lvlug.org/pipermail/lvas/attachments/20090125/e315641a/attachment.htm 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: NGC 404 Galaxy in Andromeda.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 18164 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lvlug.org/pipermail/lvas/attachments/20090125/e315641a/attachment.jpg