NGC 2767, NGC 2769 & NGC 2771: Galaxy Group (Ursa Major) RA: 09h 10.4m / DEC: +50° 23'.9 Instrument: 10-inch Starfinder |
Galaxy clusters are among my favorite objects to observe. It's astounding to me that several stellar gothams can be viewed within the same slender patch of sky. That's like collecting Tokyo, New York City and LA, side-by-side, on the same patch of land. One such grouping includes NGC 2767, NGC 2769 and NGC 2771, three galaxies in western Ursa Major. My sketch renders the view at 129X in the 10-inch Starfinder. NGC 2767 is the fainter of the trio, with a blue magnitude of 14.8. It's slender form is aligned roughly east-west and over a 60"x15" area. 4' to the east, NGC 2769 emerges as a 60"x30" patch elongated north-south. This Sa-type galaxy has a blue magnitude of 13.9. Finally, NGC 2771 resides 3' south of NGC 2769. This SBab-type barred spiral presents as a 30" diameter oval, very faint with a blue magnitude of 13.6. All three have radial velocities of 4820 km per second per megaparsec to 5053 km per sec per megaparsec, indicating they reside about 250 million light-years from the Milky Way. Twenty-one stars populate the drawing. Among these is HD 78792, a 6.7 magnitude star near the eastern field boundary. |
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