To any astronomer, springtime means galaxy season and believe me, this time of year bears no shortage of items. As we finally bid farewell to frigid winter nights, warmer, peaceful observing sessions are ahead – at least before the mosquitoes move in. The past two articles dealt with a number of winter open star clusters that reside in the arms of our galaxy. Now we will be working overtime, pushing our telescopes to the limit, trying to discern ghostly images millions of light-years away. Leo Major along with Virgo yield a high number of galaxies and this is where we will begin our cosmic journey.

Leo the lion is denoted by a backwards question mark or sickle outlining its proud main and a hypotenuse angel to the left, representing its hindquarters. A few thousand years ago, the rising of Leo signified spring and warmer weather thus notifying farmers it was time to sow their crops. This was in contrast to the constellation Orion’s warning of the imposing winter. The seasonal change would cause the Nile River in Egypt to rise and flood their crops. As mentioned, there is no shortage of observable objects within the boundaries of the lion as well as surrounding territories. Although you have a choice of more than forty galaxies down to twelfth magnitude, I will only review a few of the brighter ones.

With such an abundance of galaxies in such a confined area, close groupings are bound to take place. One such grouping is a trio of M65, M66 and NGC 3628. All listed at roughly 35 million light-years (ly) away, they appear nicely in a low power eyepiece. Glowing from 9.0 to 9.5 magnitude, you will still need decent sky transparency and minimum light pollution. M65 and M66 are spirals with M66 producing wider arms. NGC 3628 is a more elongated but dusty galaxy. This trio does not seem to belong to the mammoth Virgo galaxy group but is its own separate gathering.

Our next group is M95, M96 and M105. Although spaced farther apart and residing at 38 million ly distance, they still strike a pretty picture with M96 being the largest of the group. Their brightness range again from 9.0 to 9.5 and they belong to the Leo Galaxy Group along with M65 trio. Now centre your scope on M105 and catch its two companions named NGC 3384 located to the northeast of M105 moving south you will bag NGC 3389. A bit of a challenge at magnitudes 10.0 and 11.8 you should still find them.

Another tight grouping is the NGC 3190 group located halfway down the neck of the lion. Centring on NGC 3190 – the brightest member at 11th magnitude, we have NGC 3193 to northeast glowing at 10.9, NGC 3187 to the northwest at 13.1 and finally NGC 3185 to the southwest with a brightness of 12.2. For an ultimate challenge, try Copeland’s Septet located at co-ordinates right ascension 11h 37m, declination 21d 58m. Seven galaxies occupy this tiny area and range from 14th to 15th magnitude.

The constellations of Coma Berenices and Virgo harbour dozens of galaxies. One particular target in Coma is M99 dubbed the Pinwheel Nebula, even though it is a galaxy. At 60 million ly, this 9.8 magnitude face-on spiral measures about six minutes round (remembering that the moon measures 30 minutes across). M99 has one arm open wider than the rest of the galaxy. M100 is a large round face-on spiral with a bright nucleus some 40 million light-years. M100 is flanked by NGC 4322, 4328 and 4312 which is a very elongated spiral. M85 and NGC 4394 make a nice pair glowing at magnitudes 9.2 and 10.9.

Last but not least is Virgo and where do I begin. Let’s move to my favourite of M86 & M84 with another five galaxies in the surrounding area. Using a 12.5-inch Dobsonian telescope, I caught these seven objects with a wide-angle eyepiece under country skies – what an awe-inspiring sight. A good example of what might be two galaxies on a collision course is the Siamese Twins

AKA NGC 4567 and 4568. This merger lies some 65 million ly from us and is magnitudes 11.3 and 10.8. To think the light from these two left when T-Rex and his dinosaur buddies were still roaming the earth. There are just too many fine objects to describe in this article. The Sombrero Galaxy M104 located in Corvus is an 8.3 magnitude edge-on with a gorgeous dark lane cutting it in half. Dust lanes are common in the structure of galaxies. A close chain of three stars points to this jewel estimated at 40 million ly from us. For another edge-on galaxy, might I suggest NGC 4565 in Coma Berenices? This showpiece is 30 million ly from us and glows just under 10th magnitude.

For a change of pace, let’s look at an irregular planetary nebula – NGC 4361 located some 2,500 ly from our solar system. There are a couple of globular clusters as well in Coma Berenices. First, we have M53. It lies some 58 thousand ly from us and is about 220 ly wide. It sports a decent starry concentration towards its nucleus and is just out of the naked eye range at magnitude 7.3. M3, on the other hand, can be glimpsed under an exceptional sky. This 6.2 magnitude fuzzball, is about half as far as M53.

The planet Saturn is now ending its retrograde motion westward and will be closing in on M44 the Beehive cluster, once again. If you missed the close approach of the ring planet back in February, now is your last chance as the two optically meeting for the last time on June 6th. Nine nights later on the 15th, Mars plows through the cluster. Jupiter is up in the east around 11 p.m. locally at the beginning of April and up by 9 p.m. by month’s end. Refer to the RASC 2006 Observer’s Handbook page 202 for transit timings.

The Lyrid meteor shower runs from April 16th to 25th, peaking on the night of the 22nd. The moon will not be a problem when spotting the estimated 18 meteors per hour as they will streak across the sky at 49 km/sec. The full moon is slated for April 27th at 19:22 UT.

Stay tuned next month as Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann will fly past the Earth in May. This would almost seem like a routine comet passing, however, there is a twist. In 1995 the comet mystically split. So now you can see three distinct comet parts. Check the sky on the nights of May 12, 13 and 14 for a truly rare event. More on this developing story in our next segment of the “Sky This Month”.

Until next month – clear skies everyone.

Gary Boyle