Complete Report:  APRIL 2017 OBSERVERS CHALLENGE – NGC-3395-96

Observer:  Roger Ivester – Date: March 18, 2017  
Telescope: 10-Inch Reflector
Sketch Magnification: 135x
Eyepiece: 16 mm + 1.9x Barlow

Galaxy NGC 3395-96: Almost connecting. Both galaxies are elongated, brighter middles with NGC 3396 having a distinctive stellar nucleus when using averted vision, but could only be seen intermittently. I could glimpse the galaxies using a low magnification of 57x, but the best views came at 200x, and 135x, respectively, which would indicate that both galaxies are fairly well concentrated. Joseph Rothchild from Massachusetts, using a 10-inch reflector provided an excellent description of this beautiful interacting pair: “Easily seen, appearing most like an asymmetric butterfly….”

Another galaxy, NGC 3340, only 1/2º to the east of the NGC 3395-96 pair, has low surface brightness. Elongated NE-SW with an oval shape and a very subtle brightening or greater concentration in the central region. Despite the low surface brightness, I found that a higher magnification of 191x worked best.

Roger Ivester:  

Pencil Sketch with colors inverted: