# 11 Grand Tour: 102 down 399 to go.

 19th December 2020

   A gap in the clouds allowed me to observe seven more objects starting with 3 galaxies in Cetus. 8" SCT f3.3 and Infinity camera.

NGC 584

 NGC 584 Elliptical galaxy orientated about 15' x 15' with a relatively large bright core. A star lies close to the southern edge of the nucleus. NGC 584, a spiral galaxy, is seen to the west.                                    NGC 936  Barred Spiral Galaxy with a bright nucleus. Almost edge on aligned east - west along the long axis. A fainter galaxy lies 13' to the west.          NGC 1052  Similar to NGC 936 but has an even brighter core region. About 45 degrees inclined and elongated NW - SE  12" x 15".  

 At this point a bank of cloud rolled in.

 

M76

   With the cloud rolling away to the east I headed up to Perseus which was overhead.

M76  A Planetary Nebula known as "The Little Dumbbell "  Does indeed resemble its larger namesake in Vulpecula but is rather more rectangular. Has prismatic colours either end and is aligned NE - SW. The magnitude 16 central star is not visible. This object lies in a rich field and looks like its "floating" in space.

NGC 869 and NGC 864

 NGC 869  Is the western component of the  well known naked eye double cluster along with NGC  864 to the east.  Both only just fit in the field of view. Always an amazing sight. A couple of orange stars lie between the clusters.

NGC 957 An open cluster not far from the Double Cluster.  Magnitude 7.6 and quite rich elongated E-W 20" x 8" . The brighter stars across the cluster give the impression of being foreground stars.

  Looking up after this observation a bank of cloud rolled in from the west ending the evenings session.