The Scales hide many Deep Sky Objects
Libra is not the most obvious of constellations. Although it lies right along the ecliptic, like all other zodiac constellations do, Libra is just west of Scorpius and, well, if you’ve ever seen Scorpius, it is easy to get distracted by it. It lies between Virgo to the west and Scorpius to the east, and is at its best around mid to late May. The best time to view Libra, or any constellation, is when it crosses the meridian.
What is the Celestial Meridian?
The meridian is an imaginary line in the sky that connects through the north pole, the zenith, or highest point in the sky, south pole, and nadir, or lowest point below you. It is perpendicular to both the celestial equator and the celestial horizon.
Libra hides many distant galaxies
The table below is a listing of some of the deep sky objects that can be found in Libra. Astronomers prize deep sky objects, because it is a challenge to find them in your telescope, since stars and galaxies don’t have convenient little labels on them in the night sky. Also, the number in the Mag column stands for Magnitude. The higher the number, the dimmer the object is. Generally, the higher the number is, the bigger the telescope that is needed in order to see it. So, finding very faint deep sky objects becomes a source of great pride for astronomers, as the fainter they are, the harder they are to find. If you own a telescope, there are websites where you can input the diameter of your telescope, type, the quality of the skies at your location, and you can determine the limiting magnitude of your telescope.
What is Limiting Magnitude?
Limiting Magnitude is the highest magnitude of objects that your telescope can be expected to resolve under ideal conditions. Limiting magnitude increases with the diameter of the telescope and the quality of the optics in the telescope. In ideal conditions, that is the magnitude of objects your telescope will be able to resolve. Ideal conditions, though, rarely exist. Limiting magnitude is affected by the quality of the skies at the viewing location, and light pollution severely impacts the resolving ability of your telescope. I usually subtract a value of 3 from the Limiting Magnitude of my telescopes, to account for sky conditions. For example, my 28″ telescope SkyClops (TM) has a Limiting Magnitude of around 18.5. This means that, in optimal conditions, SkyClops can “see” any deep sky object with a magnitude of less than 18.5. In reality, it probably will resolve an object up to about Magnitude 15.5, due to light pollution, exit pupil, how dark adapted the viewer’s eyes are, and atmospheric conditions, at a minimum. That means SkyClops can realistically see every object in the table below, with the exception of the dark nebula listed at magnitude 79.9. I am certain that is a typo, as the Hubble Space Telescope only sees down to about magnitude 30. Again, higher the number, the fainter the object.
Most of the objects in the table below are galaxies, though I have not yet found values for their distances. As I update this page, I will work to complete this table with that distance data, so you can see how far back in time you will be able to look when you go to observe some of these galaxies.
Cons = Constellation
NGC = New General Catalog and is a listing of over 8000 deep sky objects. Most are galaxies, as there are an estimated 125 billion galaxies in the universe, each with its own complement of 100 – 400 billion stars. Many of those stars are of the right type to harbor planetary systems so, yes, the universe is a very big place!!!
LIB = Libra
RA = Right Ascension in hours past Prime Meridian (more on that in another document)
RA Min = Minutes of Right Ascension. This with the hours tells the place from east to west in the sky that the object is found
Dec = Declination, given as an angle. This with Dec Min gives the object’s position up or down.
RA, RA Min, Dec and Dec Min specify a position in the sky just like latitude and longitude specify an exact position on Earth. There are just celestial coordinates.
Scope, Eyepiece, Magnification, Notes is a column for observing notes, namely any filters needed to view the object, what eyepiece best displays it, or any tricks to finding it.
Have fun!!!!
Name Cons. Type Mag Dist RA RA Min Dec Dec Min Scope, Eyepiece, Magnification, Notes
NGC5817 LIB GALXY 15 14 59.7 -16 11
NGC5744 LIB GALXY 14.2 14 46.6 -18 31
NGC5756 LIB GALXY 12.3 14 47.6 -14 51
NGC5757 LIB GALXY 11.9 14 47.8 -19 5 H III 690
NGC5761 LIB GALXY 12.4 14 49.1 -20 23 GALXY @ 14 48.4 -20 10 fits descr but 14 47.7 -20 16 brightr
NGC5768 LIB GALXY 12.5 14 52.1 -2 32 H III 373;sBN;sev knotty branch arms;poor res
NGC5766 LIB GALXY 13.4 14 53.2 -21 24
NGC5781 LIB GALXY 14 14 56.7 -17 15
NGC5792 LIB GALXY 11.3 14 58.4 -1 5 H II 683;vsBN in broad diff bar w strong dk lane
NGC5791 LIB GALXY 11.7 14 58.8 -19 16 H III 691
NGC5793 LIB GALXY 13.2 14 59.4 -16 42
NGC5796 LIB GALXY 11.6 14 59.4 -16 37
NGC5741 LIB GALXY 15 14 45.9 -11 55
NGC5742 LIB GALXY 14 14 45.6 -11 49
NGC5595 LIB GALXY 12 14 24.2 -16 43 H III 121
NGC5597 LIB GALXY 12 14 24.5 -16 46 H III 122
NGC5605 LIB GALXY 12.3 14 25.1 -13 10 H III 120
NGC5664 LIB GALXY 15 14 33.7 -14 37 IC position 0.7m and 3′ off;but description fits
NGC5663 LIB GALXY 15 14 33.9 -16 35
NGC5716 LIB GALXY 13 14 41.1 -17 29 H III 671
NGC5729 LIB GALXY 13 14 42.1 -9 1 H III 508
NGC5728 LIB GALXY 11.4 14 42.4 -17 15 H I 184
NGC5726 LIB GALXY 12.8 14 42.9 -18 27
NGC5745 LIB GALXY 14 14 45 -13 57
NGC5734 LIB GALXY 12.7 14 45.2 -20 52
NGC5743 LIB GALXY 13 14 45.2 -20 55
NGC5916A LIB GALXY 15 15 21.2 -13 6
NGC5903 LIB GALXY 11.2 15 18.6 -24 4 H III 139
NGC5898 LIB GALXY 11.4 15 18.2 -24 6 H III 138
NGC5890 LIB GALXY 14 15 17.9 -17 35
NGC5897 LIB GLOCL 8.4 15 17.4 -21 1 H VI 19
NGC5891 LIB GALXY 14 15 16.2 -11 30
NGC5917 LIB GALXY 14.5 15 21.5 -7 23
NGC5915 LIB GALXY 12.3 15 21.6 -13 6
NGC5916 LIB GALXY 14 15 21.6 -13 10
PK342+27.1 LIB PLNNB 11.6 15 22.3 -23 38 same as PK342+17.1
NGC5959 LIB GALXY 14 15 37.4 -16 36
NGC5973 LIB GALXY 16.1 15 40.3 -8 36
NGC5978 LIB GALXY 14 15 42.5 -13 14
NGC5995 LIB GALXY 14 15 48.4 -13 45
LDN134 LIB DRKNB 79.9 15 53.6 -4 39 Not listed in U2000 second edition
NGC5883 LIB GALXY 15 15 15.2 -14 37
NGC5885 LIB GALXY 11.8 15 15.1 -10 5 H III 116
NGC5880 LIB GALXY 15 15 15 -14 35
NGC5801 LIB GALXY 15.1 15 0.4 -13 54
NGC5802 LIB GALXY 14.6 15 0.5 -13 55
NGC5815 LIB GALXY 14 15 0.5 -16 50
NGC5803 LIB GALXY 15.8 15 0.6 -13 54
NGC5809 LIB GALXY 14 15 0.9 -14 10
NGC5812 LIB GALXY 11.2 15 0.9 -7 27 H I 71
NGC5810 LIB GALXY 13.2 15 2.7 -17 52
NGC5849 LIB GALXY 15 15 6.8 -14 34
NGC5858 LIB GALXY 14 15 8.8 -11 13
NGC5861 LIB GALXY 11.6 15 9.3 -11 19 H II 192
NGC5863 LIB GALXY 12.8 15 10.8 -18 26
NGC5872 LIB GALXY 14 15 10.9 -11 29
NGC5878 LIB GALXY 11.5 15 13.8 -14 16 H III 736
NGC5892 LIB GALXY 11.7 15 13.8 -15 28 MCG – 2-39-7;Same position as Fath 703 in Burnham’s F;S;R;bM 12.8m 2′
NGC5816 LIB GALXY 15.8 15 0.1 -16 6
