Sky and Telescope - November 2017 - 59

u The brighter galaxies in Abell 194 gather
in the northeast end of the cluster. NGC 545
and NGC 547 will likely appear as a single
glow in your eyepiece, but you might be
able to distinguish their cores with enough
magnification and very transparent skies.
The cluster stretches southwest to the lenticular galaxy NGC 530, and then on to PGC
5164, which lies outside the lower boundary
of this image.

PGC 87326

Abell 194

NGC 543
PGC 5314
NGC 545
NGC 547

PGC 5313

NGC 541

The area above the Arps is dotted with
little lumps of light. Almost 7′ north of
NGC 545 is 13.7-magnitude NGC 548,
which I logged as "tiny but discernible,"
and a scant 2′ west of NGC 545 (northeast of NGC 541) is teensy PGC 5313. A
line from NGC 541 through PGC 5313
arrives at PGC 5314, adjacent to a pair
of 14th-magnitude stars. That star-pair
aims farther north toward 13.1-magnitude NGC 543, an edge-on galaxy that
to me was "tiny, round, not elongated."
Alas, I missed two essentially starlike phantoms: PGC 87326, which lies
directly east of the edge-on, and PGC
73958, northeast of the edge-on.

NGC 535

PGC 5307

PGC 5306

PGC 5289

PGC 5258
PGC 5228
NGC 538

RUSSELL CROM AN

Deep in the Cluster
Let's reverse direction and head deeper
into Abell 194. Less than 4′ southwest
of NGC 541 is 13.8-magnitude NGC
535. My notes say this edge-on galaxy
appeared "smaller and fainter than the
anchor galaxies (NGC 545/547, 541),
but clearly spindle-shaped, aiming at
the anchors. Large in the middle, not
a streak." At that point, I found myself
staring at eight members of Abell 194
in a single, high-power ﬁeld of view.
The tally will be ten if I ever detect the
phantoms mentioned above!
From NGC 535, a sharp turn southsouthwestward swept up 13.7-magnitude NGC 538 slightly more than 8½′
away. My log records this inclined spiral
system as a "bit bigger and brighter than
NGC 535 but not as slender. Strongly
elongated, leans northeast, 12.4-mag
star off northeast tip." Spanning the
space north and west of NGC 538 is
a gentle curve, 14′ long, of four teenyweeny edge-on galaxies. PGC 5307,
PGC 5289, PGC 5258, and PGC 5228
were all visible - though the last one,
PGC 5228, was difﬁcult. (Need help?

NGC 530
IC 1696

An imaginary line from NGC 545/NGC
547, through NGC 541 and NGC 535,
extends directly to PGC 5228.)
Another 6¼′ southwest of PGC 5228,
toward the southwest end of the Abell
194 "strip," is the best edge-on galaxy
of the group: 13.0-magnitude NGC
530. My notes read: "Good contrast,
distinctly edge-on, oriented northwestsoutheast. Bigger, brighter toward
the middle. Averted vision picks up
tapered 'wings' - 13.6-magnitude star
off southeast tip." That easy edge-on

points southeastward in the direction
of 13.6-magnitude IC 1696, a "biggish,
roundish, pale fuzz accompanied by a
14.4-magnitude star northwest."
Southwest of NGC 530, I found
three more 14th-magnitude galaxies
in a 14′-long line stretching across the
southwest terminus of Abell 194. NGC
519 was "just a fuzzy dot" attended by a
13.5-magnitude star immediately south.
However, upon closer inspection, "that
star and four others, plus the galaxy,
form a strikingly dipper-like asterism."
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e . c o m * N O V E M B E R 2 0 17

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Sky and Telescope - November 2017

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