The Caldwell Objects

62
Milkweed Seed Galaxy
NGC247
Type: Mixed Spiral Galaxy
(SABd)
Con: Cetus
RA: 00 h 47.1'"
Dec:-20° 46'
Mag: 9.2; 8.9 (O'Meara)
Dim: 22.2' χ 6.7'
SB: 14.1
Dist: 6.8 million light-years
Disc: William Herschel, 1784
W. H ERSCHEL: [Observed 20
October 1784] A streak of light,
nearly in the meridian 26' long
[and] 3' or 4' broad. Pretty
bright. (HV-20)
GC/NGC: Faint, extremely
large, very much extended
toward position angle 172°.
O BSERVERS LOOKING FOR A " WHALE" OF A
time in the winter sky usually turn their telescopes
toward the bright Seyfert galaxy M77 in
Cetus, the celestial Whale (actually, Cetus is
really a sea monster). But if you dip your telescope
tube 3° south-southeast of Beta (β) Ceti, the
2nd-magnitude star marking the Whale's tail,
you'll see a sight overlooked by many: the nearly
edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 247. In nearly half a
century of writing for Sky & Telescope magazine,
Walter Scott Houston only mentioned this galaxy
three times, and then only in passing. Robert
Burnham Jr. discusses it in his Celestial Handbook,
but his description of
62
its visual appearance (a "faint haze") is uninspiring.
Furthermore, one of the southern sky's
most stunning galaxies, NGC 253 (Caldwell 65),
lies only 4½° due south of NGC 247. So it's easy
to understand why NGC 247 has been ignored.
That is, until Patrick Caldwell-Moore made it the
62nd object in his Caldwell Catalog.
From Hawaii NGC 247 is visible in 7x35
binoculars. It looks like a thin thread extending
from the pinprick of a magnitude-9.5 star that
punctuates its southern tip. How can something
so faint be visible in small binoculars? Well, that's
easy. The galaxy isn't faint; it just has a low
surface brightness, so its beauty is
The Caldwell Objects 245