The Caldwell Objects

through the narrow haze. But give the galaxy
time, because there is a wealth of fine detail to be
seen. Clumps of starlight, twisted arms, and dark
clouds gradually reveal themselves to a patient
observer. Reserve high power for the galaxy's
nuclear region, which is another treasure trove of
tiny details. At high power the nucleus is a bright
bead of scintillating wonder immersed in a tight
ellipse of light. Just beyond the eastern edge of
the central mass is
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a hyperfine "arm" or patchy structure that hugs
the central mass before extending to the south. It
looks like a continuation of the northern loop, but
this may be an illusion. I cannot see the bar in
full, but I can infer its presence from the way the
details are angled in the central ellipse; they seem
to match the orientation of the bar known to
scientists. Also, one spiral arm to the north does
have a strong barlike component, but I don't see
exactly the same thing to the south. The southern
arm has two distinct clumps separated by a fuzzy
"string" of light that sweeps out beyond the
magnitude-9.5 star. All this detail is remarkably
fine considering how small an aperture I used to
make the observations.
By the way, the trick to seeing the dark void
in NGC 247's northern limb is to observe it at low
power, which concentrates light and increases the
contrast between luminous and dark areas. Low
power is especially effective in bringing out the
faint eastern "wall" that confines the dark "hole."
Long-exposure photographs made with
large telescopes show NGC 247 superimposed on
a group of fainter, far more distant galaxies. And
just 5' to the northeast of the galaxy's
northernmost tip begins the Burbidge Chain — a
string of five very dim (14th- to 15th-magni-tude)
and peculiar galaxies aligned north-south within
an area only 10' across. Seeing the Chain is a
challenge for large-telescope users.
The Caldwell Objects 247