On April 12th 2012, I observed the bright galaxy NGC 3115 in Sextans.  Conditions were a bit lacking with the NELM of only 4.5, from my light polluted backyard. I was using my 10-inch f/4.5 reflector with a magnification of 200x.  The surface brightness of this galaxy is pretty high, so high magnification works well.

My description of this galaxy is pretty brief, as very little detail could be seen.  It is bright, with a brighter elongated middle and when using averted vision a stellar nucleus could be seen, however, difficult and not constant. 

The edges are very sharp and well defined, and the overall texture is very smooth. This galaxy can be observed very nicely with a small scope, presenting a view similar to that of a much larger scope, only dimmer.  The pencil sketch pictured above was made using a blank 5 x 8 note card with the colors inverted using my scanner.  RI

This entry was posted on May 22, 2012 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Work File Only - Observer's Challenge Reports. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.