NGC 1087

Historical observations

William Herschel (c.1784)

Synonyms:H II-466

Discovered in 1785 by William Herschel with an 18.7-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He called it "pB, cL, iR, mbM."

Birr Castle/Lord Rosse

Observations with the 72-inch f/8.8 speculum telescope at Birr Castle noted "faint patch, 2 stars perhaps, preceding middle."

Published comments

Photo index

by Jim Lucyk: Hubble Atl.of Gal. (Sandage 1961) p35, Rev.Shapley-Ames Cat.of Bright Gal. (Sandage,Tammann 1981) p107, 127.

Sandage & Tammann (1975)

Sandage, A. & Tammann, G. A. (1975) Steps toward the Hubble constant. V - The Hubble constant from nearby galaxies and the regularity of the local velocity field. ApJ, 196, 313-328. [1975ApJ...196..313S]

(1975, Astrophysical Journal, 196, 313-328) includes this galaxy in the NGC 1068 Group. Members include NGC 936, NGC 1055, NGC 1068, NGC 1073, NGC 1084 & NGC 1087.

de Vaucouleurs, G. (1975)

de Vaucouleurs, G. (1975) Nearby groups of galaxies. In: Kuiper, G. (ed) Stars and Stellar Systems. Volume 9: Galaxies and the Universe. Chapter 14, p557.

Cetus I Cloud.

Includes NGC 1052 and NGC 1068 groups.

Brightest members: NGC 1068 ( B(0) = 9.81), NGC 936 ( B(0) =11.28 ), NGC 1084 ( B(0) = 11.38), NGC 1087 ( B(0) = 11.74), NGC 1055 ( B(0) = 11.77).

("Galaxies and the Universe", Chapter 14 - Nearby Groups of Galaxies) notes that the five brightest members of the Cetus I group are NGC 1068, NGC 936, NGC 1084, NGC 1087 & NGC 1055.

Sandage, A. (1961) The Hubble Atlas of Galaxies

This galaxy appears on page 35 of "The Hubble Atlas of Galaxies" by Allan Sandage (1961, Washington, DC).

Helwan Obs. Bulletin No 22 (1921)

! B 3'x1.5', E 10deg approx., spiral with fairly sharp BN and about 20 B almost stell. condensations; the whorls in s. portion of nebula are fairly normal, but the n portion is rather curious.

Sulentic & Tifft (1973)

The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a 11.5 mag galaxy. Their coded description reads S,HISB,SEVLGE DKPCHS SHORT DIFARMS N&S.

Modern observations

Tom Lorenzin

Tom Lorenzin, in the electronic version of "1000+ The Amateur Astronomers' Field Guide to Deep Sky Observing", notes: "11.2M; 2.3'x 1.3' extent; coarse but tight spiral arms; photo at HAG-35; N1090 (12.8M; 4'x 1.5' extent) soft slash 15' to N and a little E."

Walter Scott Houston

Houston lists this as one of a clump of galaxies within a degree or two of Delta Ceti: the list is in order of increasing difficulty: NGC 1068, 1055, 1073, 1087 & NGC 1090.

Burnham's Celestial Handbook

Burnham calls it a 11.2 mag spiral galaxy in Cetus, 2.3' x 1.3', "pretty bright, considerably large, slightlyt elongated, much brighter in the middle. Spiral arms coarse but compact."

Brian Skiff

POSS: pa10. m11 *s 2'.9 NE, 3'.7 ESE; they are 3'.4 sep.

15cm - easy. 2'x1', sl elong N-S. gran and brtns a little to center.

- mod br diffuse glow @ 80x. 140x: wk even concen across poorly def core. halo somewhat oval, elong N-S, length about same as sep of two *s NE & E (m11.5-12). halo well-def. BS, 9Jan1989, Anderson Mesa.

25cm - mod br and little elong. two m11 *s on E. some br patches maybe due to seeing. irreg edges. 2' diam.

30cm - 15' S of -90. brtr than -90, circ. forms triangle w/m9.5 *s NE & SE. 2' diam. unevenly br core w/some mottling. elong 25% in pa30?.

Steve Gottlieb

02 46.4 -00 30 17.5 (11/14/87): bright, fairly large, elongated 3:2 N-S, gradually brighter halo, small bright core. Two mag 11 stars 2.9' NE and 3.8' ESE of center are part of a string of brighters stars oriented NW-SE. N1090 lies 15' NNE. An extremely faint galaxy (M+00-08-012) lies 3.5' NE (not seen).

13 (9/3/83): fairly bright, moderately large, weak concentration, elongated N-S.

8 (12/6/80): faint, fairly small, diffuse. Located near a string of mag 10 stars.

Steve Coe

Steve Coe, using a 13" f/5.6, notes: "Pretty bright, pretty large, little elongated, little brighter middle."

Contemporary observations

Tom Bryant

2011 3 1 19:16:7

Observing site: Little Bennett Regional Park

Telescope: C-11

[2h 46m 24s, -0° 30' 0"] A large, faint, smudge. I did not see a nucleus. Sc? Burnham: Sc.