NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort
(This is a very very beta version)
NGC5609
Basic Information
Location and Magnitude
Right Ascension: 14:23:48.3
Declination: +34:50:34
Constellation: BOO
Visual Magnitude: 15.7
Historic Information
Discoverer: Stoney B.
Year of discovery: 1851
Discovery aperture: 72.0
Observational
Summary description: eeF
Sub-type: S
Corwin's Notes
=====
NGC 5609, NGC 5613, and NGC 5615 are all companions of NGC 5614 found by LdR.
In spite of the good positions in NGC, there has been some confusion over the
identifications. Even if the positions were not reliable, LdR's sketch of the
field, and micrometric measurements of two of the novae, would be enough to
clearly identify them.
NGC 5614 and NGC 5615 have attracted recent attention as an interacting pair
of galaxies. N5615 has a tidal plume streaming away from it and N5614, the
clear result of the gravitational interaction.
Steve's Notes
=====
NGC 5609
48" (4/15/10): at 431x easily visible with direct vision as a moderately bright, fairly small, round glow of ~20" diameter, with a moderately high surface brightness. Located 4' WSW of NGC 5614 and 4.7' SW of slightly brighter NGC 5613. The redshift-based (z = 1.0) light-travel time is 1.3 billion years, certainly one of the most distant objects in the NGC!
24" (7/8/13): at 280x, fairly faint, fairly small, round, low even surface brightness, 18" diameter. Visible continuously with averted. Located 4' WSW of NGC 5614 (Arp 178) in a quartet.
18" (5/16/09): extremely faint and small, round, 6" diameter. Required averted vision to glimpse ~20% of the time at 280x, though could consistently repeat the observation. Visible over 1/2 the time in a 22" at 330x. Located 4' WSW of NGC 5614.