Your skills: Intermediate (some years) Date/time of observation: 1-25-01, 8:30 UT (2:30 am CST) Location: New Haven, Missouri (Lat ~38, Elev ~700') Site classification: Rural Sky darkness:6 <1-10 Scale (10 best)> Seeing: 4 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Moon presence: None Instrument: 40" f/5dob Magnification: 204x Filter(s): none Category: External galaxy Class: SBb Constellation: Leo Data: mag 10.5b size 7.5 x 5.0 Position: RA 10h 43m 57.8s DEC +11 42' 14"
Description: This bright galaxy is easily found in central Leo. It lies very nearly in the middle of a triangle of three stars: 3.8 mag 47 Leo, 5.5 mag 52 Leo, and 5.3 mag 53 Leo. The core was brighter than the bar which was in turn brighter than the ring. The ring was a subtle feature due to the glow of the galaxy both inside and outside the ring. The third star from the left does not show up on the dss image I downloaded. I initially thought I had found a super nova or an asteroid. But neither of these turned out to be the case. A star does appear at this position in the USNO A2.0 catalogue but it is vmag ~19.6 so the object I saw is almost certainly nonexistent. North is up in this drawing.