NGC/IC Objects

NGC 5905 & NGC 5908: Galaxy Pair (Draco) RA: 15h 16.0m / DEC: +55° 27'.8
Instrument: 10-inch Starfinder

Galaxies are my favorite deep-sky objects to observe. These stellar behemoths appear so fragile. How could something so unimagineably large be so delicate to they eye? Seeing two or more together in the same eyepiece field is simply awesome. NGC 5905 and NGC 5908 call the far northern sky home. They reside in Draco, about 3.7 degrees south-southwest of 3.3 magnitude Edasich, Iota (12) Draconis. They are presented in the sketch at left, which captures a 129X view in my Meade 10-inch Starfinder Newtonian. NGC 5905 is the larger and brighter of the pair. This barred spiral galaxy has a photographic magnitude of 12.5, which suggests a visual magnitude approximately 0.8 magnitude brighter. NGC 5905's stellar core region anchors an oval outer disk region. This gives the galaxy a 4'.0x3'.5 profile aligned roughly northwest-to-southeast. NGC 5908 is visible 13' to the southeast. This Sb-type galaxy covers a 2'x1' area along the same northwest-to-southeast axis. A brighter core region occupies ther interior 60"x10" of the galaxy. An 11th magnitude GSC star shines just 2' from NGC 5908's northern tip. Another 24 field stars frame the pair. While in the area, check out nearby M102 and NGC 5907.


NGC 5897 NGC 5907

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Revised: June 18, 2002 [WDF]