Sky & Telescope - April 2024 - 27

in that telescope at 664× did the round glow appear to be
unevenly illuminated, and during brief moments I could also
detect the main body of each galaxy forming a bright " bar. "
Far, Far Out
Another galaxy that was discovered on POSS plates some 60
years ago became entry number 1559 in the Ogle Galaxy Catalog.
Recently compiled by Patrick Ogle (Space Telescope Science
Institute) and colleagues, it lists superluminous galaxies
out to 3.5 billion light-years. OGC 1559 is classified as a rare
super spiral for having eight times the Milky Way's luminosity
along with a disk of stars more than twice as wide, too!
Considering OGC 1559's distance of 1.2 billion light-years,
it's amazing that I could see it with averted vision as a very
faint, compact glow in my 10-inch at 260×. Moving up to 440×
in my 16-inch, the 15th-magnitude face-on galaxy is clearly a
10″-wide patch. At its edge is a star that became quite evident
in the WPO's 36-inch at 664×, while the galaxy itself displayed
a bright, diffuse core in a larger, lower-surface-brightness glow.
Our final and farthest target lies an incredible 1.8 billion
light-years away and yet is still visible in my 10-inch.
First cataloged as MCG +04-28-097 and more recently as
OGC 0032, it's a massive elliptical galaxy at the heart of the
galaxy cluster Abell 1413 that, incredibly, is 50% more luminous
than the much closer M87. Wow!
REMOTE GALAXY At nearly 2 billion lightyears
away, OGC 0032 is the most distant
target on this list. This elliptical behemoth
anchors the galaxy cluster Abell 1413.
Astronomers first noticed the object, which is located in far
northeastern Leo and just 0.7° west of the border with Coma
Berenices, on POSS plates in the 1950s, and its measured redshift
made it one of the farthest known galaxies at the time. In
my 10-inch at 260×, it's hard for my eye to lock onto its position
since there's no star visible for 4′ in any direction. When
it does, I see a faint, ghostly glow . . . which doesn't sound like
much, but it's the farthest nonstellar object I've seen in that
scope! Using my 16-inch at 300×, it still takes a moment to
pin down, and it's hard for me to tell if it's elongated or not.
Surprisingly, OGC 0032 is not the end of the line for how
far you can see in Leo with a 10-inch. The stellar, 14.7-magnitude
(but variable) quasar PG 1116+215 - not far from
Leo II, in fact - will help you break the 2-billion-light-year
barrier. But I hope this all-too-brief tour in the celestial Lion
has left you as amazed as I am at the variety it holds and
reminds you that there's always more to see!
¢ Contributing Editor SCOTT HARRINGTON hopes you'll forgive
him for cutting his own trail through the jungle to visit his
friend Leo. He can be reached at sn4ark@gmail.com.
FURTHER MATERIAL: You can purchase Alvin Huey's field guide
Observing Flat Galaxies at https://is.gd/alvin_huey_guides. Go to
https://is.gd/ogle_catalog for data on other galaxies in the OGC.
N
sk yand tele scope .o r g * APRIL 2024 27
ESA / NASA / HUBBLE
https://www.is.gd/alvin_huey_guides https://is.gd/ogle_catalog http://skyandtelescope.org
Sky & Telescope - April 2024

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