EDGE-ON GALAXIES OF THE SPRING SKY
Material to complement the article in the April 1996 issue of
Thanks for reading my article in "Sky & Telescope". There is more
information included in these pages than could have fit into the article. You will find
notes, drawings, and more photographs of edge-on galaxies. I also include my full
observing list of over forty bright edge-on galaxies in the Spring sky.
- Included in this list is object data for the galaxies in the Spring sky
with aspect ratios greater than 4 and magnitudes brighter than 12. All told,
there are about 40 galaxies. The source for the data was "The Deep Sky Field
Guide to Uranometria 2000.0". Of course, there may be many interesting edge-on
galaxies fainter than magnitude 12.
- Here are my notes taken for the bright edge-on galaxies listed in the text
file above. It was difficult to eliminate some of these fine objects in constructing
a narrative for the magazine.
POSS Images for the galaxies featured in the article
- The Goddard Space Flight Center has a page called "SkyView" which allows
the user to access scanned Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS) plates. I
downloaded FITS files and converted them to JPEG format for your viewing.
Some image processing was done. The images were inverted and some unsharp
masking was performed to enhance faint detail. In each case, the image size
is 12' x 12', with 400 x 400 pixels. North is up.
Access the Digitized POSS!
The Digitized POSS
at STScI
SkyView at GSFC
Drawings of edge-on galaxies
- I like to draw objects that are interesting through the eyepiece, as I find
that my notes sometimes don't capture all the details. Also, this approach
provides good illustrations. The drawings were converted to image files using
a flatbed scanner. Technical information is included in the image files.
