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The Caldwell Objects

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53<br />

brighter centre, bearing magnifying unusually<br />

well." And indeed it does. At 72x the galaxy's<br />

nucleus looks layered, evincing a bright core<br />

surrounded by an oval haze. A sharply defined<br />

plane extends from either side of this inner halo,<br />

recalling Saturn with its rings edge on. Concentrate<br />

on the outer edges of this "ring plane."<br />

Do you see some fuzzy patches? High power<br />

brings out a fantastic sight. <strong>The</strong> galaxy's core is<br />

sharply defined, with a brilliant stellar bead<br />

embedded in a lens of light. A fainter, though<br />

obvious, oval halo surrounds the interior lens,<br />

then tapers alongside the razor-sharp linear<br />

extensions, which emanate from either side of the<br />

lens. <strong>The</strong> northeastern extension does not appear<br />

to connect to the lens, while the southwestern one<br />

does. Does this imply the presence of dust?<br />

Barbara Wilson suspected a dust lane on the<br />

galaxy's southern side, and I can understand<br />

why; the region just outside the<br />

214<br />

inner lens is not as bright as the outer half of the<br />

lens. Dust may be responsible for this.<br />

<strong>The</strong> details seen in NGC 3115 through small<br />

instruments certainly rival those obtained with<br />

larger telescopes, as Houston noted: "I think it<br />

fascinating to find an object that shows well in 5inch<br />

binoculars, looks similar in a 12-inch<br />

instrument, and still perplexes professional<br />

astronomers working with the largest telescopes<br />

in the world."<br />

A magnitude-11.5 star lies 3.3' south of NGC<br />

3115's core; it "balances" on the lip of the galaxy's<br />

outer halo. Note that a 14th-magni-tude star is<br />

1.3' south of the galaxy's center so that you do not<br />

mistake it for a supernova. To date only one<br />

supernova has been discovered in NGC 3115<br />

(Supernova 1935B), and it appeared about 36"<br />

west and 60" north of the galaxy's nucleus. But<br />

you always should keep an eye open for<br />

"surprise" stars.<br />

Deep-Sky Companions: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Caldwell</strong> <strong>Objects</strong>

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