NGC 24

Historical observations

William Herschel (c.1784)

Synonyms: H III-461

Discovered in 1785 by William Herschel with an 18.7-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He called it "vF, cL, lE, glbM, 4' or 5' long."

John Herschel (1847) Cape Observations

Observed by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope with an 18-inch f/13 speculum telescope. He recorded it as "faint, very large, very much elongated, very gradually brighter towards the middle, 4' long, 1' broad."

Published comments

Helwan Obs. Bulletin No 21 (1920)

pF, 3.5'x0.5', mE 45deg.; F, pretty sharp N, E 55deg; spiral seen edgrwise, absorbing matter in s.f. portion suspected.

Sulentic & Tifft (1973)

The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a 12.0 mag galaxy. Their coded description reads S,EL,BM,SLDIF DKLNS IN DSK.

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]

Sandage and Tammann (1975, Astrophysical Journal, 196, 313-328) includes this galaxy in the South Polar Group. Members include NGC 24, NGC 45, NGC 55, NGC 247, NGC 253, NGC 300 & NGC 7793.

Corwin et al. (1985) South. Gal. Cat

The Southern Galaxy Catalogue (1985, Corwin, de Vaucouleurs & de Vaucouleurs) notes: "patchy arms with faint knots and dust patches. Much inclined."

Modern observations

Steve Coe

Steve Coe, observing with a 17.5" f/4.5 at 100X, notes: "Pretty bright, pretty large and much elongated NE to SW, averted vision makes this object grow in size quite a bit at 100X. A pretty bright star is located on the tip of this galaxy. In good seeing there is a bright core which is almost stellar at 165X.

Tom Lorenzin

Tom Lorenzin, in the electronic version of "1000+ The Amateur Astronomers' Field Guide to Deep Sky Observing", notes the magnitude as 12.2 and comments: "4.5'x 0.9' extent; faint slash with no center brightness; nearly edge-on galaxy; good supernova prospect."

Contemporary observations

Magda Streicher

2006 August 18

Alldays

12-inch f/10 SCT (76x, 218x, 346x)

This long soft streak of hazy light is impressive with first sight. It brightens up slowly to a slightly thicker middle part. The length of 6' seems right to me with a slightly longer more haze SW extension. Again the NE tip works out more to a shaper view. A 12Magnitude star can be seen a few arc minutes on the northeast.

2006 September 21

Pietersburg

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

Very nice elongated galaxy more or less 6' in a NE-SW direction (16" 102x). The nucleus is slightly brighter and situated more off center to the NE side. The SW side of the galaxy is slightly thicker with a workout tip o the other side which is very haze compare to the SW flatter impression 16" – 290x).