| NGC
2903 |
Spiral
Galaxy
aka
MCG +04-23-09, NGC 2905, PGC 27077
Integrated
Visual Magnitude: 10
Apparent
size: 11.5' x 4.2'
Light
Travel Time: 9 Mly
Minimum
requirements to detect: 6-inch under dark skies |
|
 NGC
2903 is a nice spiral galaxy in Leo with unusual visual detail.
I observed this galaxy in my 18-inch Dob. Here
are my notes from that session:
I picked this one at random. It looked
interesting on the POSS DSS image, where it showed a bright core
surrounded by a bright oval with arms emanating from it. It
appeared that I might be able to see the arms in this one. At 82x
it looked pretty good. I went to 166x to increase the contrast.
What I saw was a bright oval embedded in a slight haze. The edge
of the oval wasn't even--it had small bulges sticking out of it on
opposite sides (one side in particular). I took these to be the
beginnings of the spiral arms.
David Knisely reported the following view in a
ten-inch:
On NGC 2903, this galaxy is also one of my
favorites, as it begins to show a wealth of light and dark detail
at moderate to high powers. There almost seems to be a
central bar-like feature near the middle made up of several
brighter segments. I like 141x to 220x for viewing this one,
as considerable mottling is visible with some spiral arc-like
detail in the outer haze.
This image from the DSS shows a 30' x
30' field. North is down and east is to the right.
The view in a 6-inch at 50x. North is down
and east is right. |
Millennium
Star Atlas Vol II Chart 686
Sky
Atlas 2000 Chart 6
Uranometria
2000 Vol I Chart 143 |
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