You won't find this galaxy
in Houston's Deep Sky Wonders or Burnham's Celestial
Handbook. But it is worth a look nonetheless, mostly
because it makes a nice pair with the nearby NGC 3513. NGC
3511's main claim to fame is its appearance in the April 1996 Sky
& Telescope article Edge-on Galaxies of Spring by Tom
Polakis. 
Polakis described NGC
3511 as "of average brightness, 4'x1' p.a. 75 deg., mottled
with the brightest portion to the N of center measuring
1'x0.5'." In my 18-inch this galaxy appeared sort of fat
and "odd looking." It had a granular appearance,
with some sort of symmetric structure glimpsed to either side of the
stellar core. In the same 97x field lies NGC 3513, making a
fine pair. NGC 3513 appears to me as a uniform oval haze,
although Polakis saw a faint bar. 
The field in a 6-inch
at 50x. North is down and east is to the right. |
