NGC 1637

Historical observations

William Herschel (c.1784)

Synonyms:H I-122

Discovered in 1786 by William Herschel with an 18.7-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He called it "cB, vL, iR, bM, easily resolvable, 5' or 6' diameter."

Birr Castle/Lord Rosse

The Earl of Rosse, observing with a 72-inch f/8.8 speculum telescope, logged this galaxy on 10 occassions. He noted "Sketched twice. Appears to be a spiral, but evidence not quite satisfactory."

Published comments

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

This galaxy appears on page 30 of "The Hubble Atlas of Galaxies" by Allan Sandage (1961, Washington, DC).

Sulentic & Tifft (1973)

The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a 11.5 mag galaxy. Their coded description reads S,R,VDIF,BM,HISB EXTBD DKLNS,VPCHY&KNY.

Ryder & Dopita (1993)

Included in the CCD-atlas of Ryder S.D. & Dopita M.A. (1993) "An H-alpha Atlas of Nearby Southern Spiral Galaxies" Astrophys.J.Suppl. 88, 415. They note: "NGC 1637 is distinctly asymmetrical. Although the ineer pair of arms is well balanced, another arm sprouts from the south side and wraps a full 180 degrees around, with no apparent counterpart on the opposite side."

Photo index

Photo Index by Jim Lucyk: The Astrograph 8-9/80 p10, Hubble Atl.of Gal. (Sandage 1961) p30, Rev.Shapley-Ames Cat.of Bright Gal. (Sandage,Tammann 1981) p105.

Modern observations

Steve Gottlieb

M+00-12-068

04 41.5 -02 52

13: fairly faint, large, diffuse, elongated 4:3 SW-NE, weak concentration.

A mag 13 star is 2.1' NE of center. Located midway between Mu Eridani (V =

4.0) 1° ESE and 51 Eridani (V = 5.2) 1° WNW.

8: faint, oval, fairly small.

Steve Coe

Steve Coe, observing with a 13" f/5.6, notes: "Bright, round, very bright in the middle at 135X. The arms of this galaxy are very mottled."

Walter Scott Houston

Houston notes that this galaxy lies about 7' southeast of a 9th mag star. It is an 11th mag glow about 2' or 3' in diameter. It has been seen with a 3-inch by an observer who knew just where to look for it, but an 8-inch or larger is preferred.

Tom Lorenzin

Tom Lorenzin, in the electronic version of "1000+ The Amateur Astronomers' Field Guide to Deep Sky Observing", notes: "11.4M; 2.7'x 2' extent; appears oblong with little brighter center; good supernova prospect; see photo at HAG-30."

Brian Skiff

POSS: m11 * 6' N. m13 * 2'.1 NE. "threshold" *s NW, SE.

Lick: sl elong pa45.

15cm - 2' blotch. even light w/possible brtning in core. N is m11 *. hard

object.

25cm - mod f, diffuse, lg. 2'.5 diam, circ. on NE edge is m13 *. broadly

concen. cen blob takes up 75% of it w/f, thin ring outside.

30cm - nice, br, sm core, *ar nuc. 3'x2' in pa45 @ 220x. halo unevenly br,

obvious even @ 140x. core 25" diam w/*ar nuc. lg lumps in halo, partic

NE & SE. some threshold * off edges.

Contemporary observations

Magda Streicher

2006 September 21

Pietersburg

16-inch f/10 SCT (127x, 290x, 463x)

Very dusty soft large oval with a very slight brightens towards the middel area. The edges is very hazy and fade out in the field of view (16" - 127x). It seems to me that the SW part of the galaxy is slightly thicker around 2' and more haze, given it an oblong appearance (16" -290x). The other end thins out, very hazy and flimsy (16" - 463x). I will go back to this one again, because I do pick up a very small dot of haziness very close to the NW edge of the galaxy. It could also been part of the flimsy edge of the galaxy. The pretty star field is full of faint stars in strings and small grouping especially so to the NN-E. On the NW of the galaxy a faint grouping gives the impression of an asterism (16" - 127x).

Tom Bryant

2011 3 1 19:28:58

Observing site: Little Bennett Regional Park

Telescope: C-11

[4h 41m 30s, -2° 51' 0"] A faint, amorphous, glow, barely brighter than the night sky. B: Sc/pec.