Sky & Telescope - May 2020 - 29

16′ in length, it's a popular "showpiece" for good reason.
NGC 4244's elongated center is bright, but not uniformly
so, with bright patches at both ends. The galaxy is dusty and
mottled-looking with a hint of a central dust lane. Faint stars
dot both ends of the extended halo.
NGC 4244 is about 13 million light-years distant and the
largest member of the Canes Venatici I Cloud, a nearby, loose
group of galaxies. The edge-on orientation of galaxies like
NGC 4244 enables astronomers to accurately measure their
rotation curves, and NGC 4244 in particular has been extensively studied in an effort to determine the shape and distribution of the dark matter envelope in which it's embedded.
Just 1.5° south is another member of the CVn I Cloud,
NGC 4214, which is also considered to be part of the M94
Group of galaxies. Originally discovered by William Herschel
on April 28, 1785, a later observation by his son, John, included
an error in right ascension, and so it was recorded as a new
object. John Louis Emil Dreyer then cataloged this duplicated
object as NGC 4228 in his New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. Today, it's generally recognized that
NGC 4214 and NGC 4228 are one and the same object.
NGC 4214 is a dwarf starburst galaxy, and at about 10
million light-years away, it's the closest galaxy on our tour.
A starburst galaxy, as you might guess, is one with unusually
high rates of star formation, perhaps resulting from a past
merger or collision with another galaxy. It's fairly large with a

bright but not very concentrated core. Mostly round, it's also
a bit irregular and mottled. A faint star is seen to the northwest of the core, and the southeastern segment has a brighter
knot that might also be a star.

Concluding in Coma Berenices
We will call an end to this imaginary cascade in Coma
Berenices with NGC 4203: a bright, nearly round lenticular
(and a LINER) that appears almost stellar. The mass of the
central black hole has been measured at nearly 80 million
Suns. The distribution of neutral hydrogen in the outer
reaches of this galaxy betrays either a long-ago encounter
with another galaxy or accretion from the intergalactic
medium. NGC 4203 is visible in as little as a 60-mm scope
and is a ﬁne target for a 10-inch. It lies about 3′ almost due
south of an 8th-magnitude star.
NGC 4203 is part of the Coma I Group. Beyond it, just a
short hop southeast, you'll ﬁnd yourself on the threshold of
the realm of the galaxies: the remarkable dominion of countless
"island universes" that populate Virgo and Coma Berenices. I
can think of no better place to deposit a deep-sky observer.

¢ Contributing Editor TED FORTE enjoys galaxy-hopping from
his backyard observatory near Sierra Vista, Arizona. He finds
sharing interesting deep-sky objects with the public to be a
most fulfilling pastime.

A Waterfall of Galaxies
Object

Constellation

Surface
Brightness

Mag(v)

Size/Sep

PA

RA

NGC 4236

Dra

15.0

9.6

21.9′ × 7.2′

162

12h

NGC 4125

Dra

12.9

9.7

5.8′ × 3.2′

81

12h 08.1m

Dec.

16.7m

+69° 28′
+65° 10′

NGC 4036

UMa

12.7

10.7

4.3′ × 1.7′

85

12h

NGC 4041

UMa

13.2

11.3

2.7′ × 2.5′

72

12h 02.2m

+62° 08′

NGC 3998

UMa

12.5

10.7

2.7′ × 2.2′

140

11h 57.9m

+55° 27′

49.3m

+56° 05′

01.5m

+61° 54′

NGC 3898

UMa

13.2

10.7

4.4′ × 2.6′

107

11h

M109

UMa

13.5

9.8

7.6′ × 4.6′

68

11h 57.6m

+53° 22′

10.1

6.9′ × 3.5′

13

11h

53.8m

+52° 19′

59.4m

+50° 58′
+50° 32′

NGC 3953

UMa

13.4

NGC 4026

UMa

12.7

10.8

5.2′ × 1.3′

178

11h

NGC 4088

UMa

13.2

10.6

5.8′ × 2.2′

43

12h 05.6m

NGC 4096

UMa

13.4

10.9

6.6′ × 1.8′

20

12h

NGC 4111

CVn

12.3

10.7

4.6′ × 1.0′

150

12h 07.0m

+43° 04′

NGC 4151

CVn

14.3

10.8

6.3′ × 4.5′

146

12h 10.5m

+39° 24′

06.0m

+47° 29′

NGC 4244

CVn

14.0

10.4

16.6′ × 1.9′

48

12h

NGC 4214

CVn

13.9

9.8

8.0′ × 6.6′

144

12h 15.6m

+36° 20′

NGC 4203

Com

13.3

10.9

3.4′ × 3.2′

10

12h 15.1m

+33° 12′

17.5m

+37° 48′

Angular sizes are from recent catalogs. Visually, an object's size is often smaller than the cataloged value and varies according to the aperture and magnification of
the viewing instrument. Right ascension and declination are for equinox 2000.0. Data are only given for the primary targets in the images.

s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e . o r g * M AY 2 0 2 0

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Sky & Telescope - May 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - May 2020
