OR: Some remarkable non-Messier galaxies from Lake Sonoma

[Muriel Dulieu Holzer]

OR: Some remarkable non-Messier galaxies from Lake Sonoma

The drive to Lake Sonoma on May 9, 2026 was pleasant with little traffic. When I arrived around 7:40 pm, a good number of people were already there: Steve Gottlieb with his 14.5” StarMaster, Matt Marcus with a Unistellar and an 8” Schmidt-Cassegrain, Ziad Khoury with his 7” Maksutov, Jim Molinari with his 22” UC Obsession, along with a friend, two members of SFAA with a 16” Apertura telescope and a small refractor with an imaging rig, Carter Scholz with his homemade 16” Albert Highe-style telescope, and Easswar with a SeeStar and a separate imaging setup.

Waiting for full astronomical darkness, I looked at Jupiter and its moons in my 18” Obsession Classic. No Great Red Spot was visible this time, just two wide red bands and a thin red line above them. The four moons were visible as well. 

Wondering what else to do until complete darkness, I looked at a few double stars: Castor (Alpha Geminorum) with its two white-blue stars, and Porrima (Gamma Virginis) with its two white-yellow stars of equal apparent size. I was not quite sure what other double stars to look at, so I made a mental note to prepare a list of double stars and colored stars for next time. 

I was vaguely hoping to see Omega Centauri again later on. It was visible at Calstar the previous month. Unfortunately with Lake Sonoma being a bit more north than Lake San Antonio, it appeared that Omega Centauri would be too low, only 4 degrees above the horizon. Moreover, I looked south, opposite Polaris (the North Star), and there were a bunch of trees; it was truly hopeless. 

I like this time of night when the stars and constellations appear one by one. I am always surprised and delighted by each new appearance, like a surprise visit from an unexpected old friend. Once the darkness had fallen, it was time to start on my plan for the night. I wanted to observe the galaxies mentioned in Steve Gottlieb’s article Explore a dozen must-see galaxies published in April 2007 in the magazine Astronomy. 

NGC 4782 and NGC 4783, Two Elliptical Galaxies in Corvus

NGC 4782 and NGC 4783, also called Holm 485 / VV 201, are a close interacting elliptical pair. This pair belongs to a different article from Steve Gottlieb: Seeing Double -Close Galactic Pairs in the May 2026 issue of Sky & Telescope. As the name of the article implies, they look like a neat optical illusion of seeing double. However, optical and X-ray studies show dramatic tidal distortions, including a bridge of hot gas stretching between them, and long tidal plumes of cold gas and stars streaming outward. They lie at a distance of ~190 to 240 million light years. NGC 4782 has a magnitude of 11.7, and an apparent size of 1.8′ × 1.7′. NGC 4783 has a magnitude of 12.0, and an apparent size of 1.5′ × 1.3′.

Looking at the pair NGC 4782 and NGC 4783 in Steve’s 14.5” and then in my 18” with a 10 mm eyepiece, NGC 4782 appeared in the upper left of the field. Using a 7 mm eyepiece, I saw two star-like nuclei with a mottled round glow around each. 

Digression on doubles

Even though the previous pair of galaxies was easy to identify as a true physical pair, not every apparent pair in the sky is so easy to distinguish from a gravitational-lens illusion. The mass of giant galaxies and galaxy clusters (including their dark matter) can cause gravitational lensing in which the light is bent in such a way that an object can appear two, four, or more times in the same image. The most famous example is the Double Quasar (Q0957+561) in Ursa Major near NGC 3079. With a light-travel time of about 9 billion years, it was the first gravitational lens discovered in 1979.

Driving to a star party another night, I was listening to the podcast Bedtime Astronomy, and they were talking about the double quasar J2037–4537 that was first identified as a double quasar candidate in 2021. The light from this double quasar has been traveling for 12.7 billion years; it is amazing it was detected at all. But the challenge was to determine whether it was a true double quasar or an optical illusion. What broke the optical illusion theory was that the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) found a massive tidal bridge of cold gas between the quasar host galaxies. 

Next, I was going to look at NGC 2903, the first galaxy in Steve Gottlieb’s article Explore a dozen must-see galaxies. Unless otherwise noted, all subsequent galaxies in this report are from the same article. 

NGC 2903, The Hotspot Galaxy in Leo

NGC 2903 is a barred spiral galaxy and the brightest non-Messier galaxy in the northern sky. Its nickname, the Hotspot Galaxy, comes from the areas of intense star formation along its bar and around the circumnuclear ring. It was originally catalogued by William Herschel as a double nebula in 1784. It still has two NGC numbers today, NGC 2903 for the galaxy and NGC 2905 for its brightest H II region. It lies ~30 million light years away, its magnitude is 9.0, and its apparent size is 12.6′ × 6.0′.

In my 18” with a 9 mm eyepiece, the galaxy filled roughly a third of the field from 10.30 o’clock to 4.30 o’clock, around 9′. It looked elongated with a 3:1 aspect ratio, and had arms that were not completely defined. They curved clockwise with a sense of motion across the heavily mottled disk. The small core of medium brightness had a bar that stretched out with averted vision to about a third of the galaxy's length. I could not see NGC 2905, the bright H II region.

NGC 3115, The Spindle Galaxy in Sextans

NGC 3115, also called Caldwell 53, is a lenticular galaxy seen almost perfectly edge-on. It harbors a 2-billion-solar-mass black hole at its center. Its bimodal globular cluster population, split between metal-poor and metal-rich subpopulations, attests to a merger ~2 billion years ago. It lies ~32 million light years away, its magnitude is 8.9, and its apparent size is 7.2′ × 2.5′.

The smooth elongated disk ran about a fifth of the field, roughly 5′, brightening steadily toward the middle. The visible inner spindle had an aspect ratio of 6:1. A medium-bright core extended along about half the galaxy's length.

NGC 3521, Spiral Galaxy in Leo

NGC 3521 is a spiral galaxy tilted at about 60° from face-on. It looks cut across by a wide dust lane on one side of its disk. The arms are flocculent: short, broken, mottled. Deep imaging reveals a large system of faint stellar shells and plumes, remnants of past minor mergers. It is located ~26 million light years away, its magnitude is 9.0, and its apparent size is 11.0′ × 5.1′. 

In my 18” with a 9 mm eyepiece, the galaxy stood vertical in the field, taking up about a third of it (9′). It was elongated 3:1 in an almost half-disk form with the core near the straight vertical edge. The left side was likely fainter due to the dust lane. Its brightness rose toward a small concentrated nucleus.

NGC 4565, The Needle Galaxy in Coma Berenices

Ziad asked me to look at the Needle Galaxy, also called Caldwell 38, which is not in the article. It is a well-known large edge-on spiral galaxy with a dust lane along its edge and a prominent boxy/peanut bulge indicative of a bar thickened vertically. The boxy/peanut bulge is actually a pseudobulge: it is not a true bulge but part of the bar itself. Its core hosts a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is located ~40 million light years away, its magnitude is 9.6, and its apparent size is 15.8′ × 2.1′.

In my 18” with a 17 mm eyepiece, NGC 4565 appeared very long, taking almost half the field. It showed a large bulge of increased brightness centered on a stellar nucleus. The galaxy appeared almost vertical with its dust lane running along the length.

NGC 4449, Magellanic Dwarf Galaxy in Canes Venatici

NGC 4449 is a Magellanic-type starburst irregular galaxy similar to the Large Magellanic Cloud. It has a dense central bar-like region of star formation that runs along the galaxy’s long axis, with massive H II regions distributed through the disk. Its northern half is wider, with the brightest H II complex (CM 39) concentrated there. Its H I core (neutral atomic hydrogen) rotates in the opposite sense from its H I envelope, which indicates recent gas accretion. A faint stellar stream wraps around the galaxy, the disturbed remains of the dwarf galaxy companion NGC 4449B, unfortunately not visible in amateur telescopes. It lies at a distance of ~12 million light years, its magnitude is 9.6, and its apparent size is 6.2′ × 4.4′.

In my 18” with a 9 mm eyepiece, the galaxy ran from 11 o’clock to 5 o’clock. It appeared boxy but wider in its lower part. About two-thirds of the galaxy seemed bright. The top section seemed particularly bright with H II regions, as well as the pinpoint H II knot CM 39 at the north end (bottom left in the eyepiece). The body looked heavily mottled throughout with a field star just east of center (lower right in eyepiece).

Unfortunately the conditions began softening: the seeing turned soft and the galaxies started looking fuzzy.

Arp 269, NGC 4490 and NGC 4485, The Cocoon Galaxy in Canes Venatici

Arp 269, in Arp’s “Double Galaxies: Connected Arms” category, is a pair of interacting galaxies. Through modeling, at least two perigalactic encounters have been reconstructed, and a tidal bridge of young blue stars and H II regions formed after the second pass. NGC 4490 is a barred spiral galaxy, peculiar from the interaction, with a starburst of active star formation along the tidal bridge and in the disk. It hosts a double nucleus, the second nucleus hidden behind heavy dust. The two nuclei are likely the result of the merger with an earlier companion. The pair is wrapped in an enormous H I envelope roughly ten times the optical size of NGC 4490, holding more neutral hydrogen than the stellar disks themselves. The two galaxies lie at a distance of ~25 million light years. NGC 4490 has a magnitude of 9.8, and an apparent size of 6.3′ × 3.1′. NGC 4485 is a barred irregular galaxy, peculiar as well. It has a magnitude of 11.9, and an apparent size of 2.4′ × 1.8′. 

In my 18” with a 9 mm eyepiece, NGC 4490 had an eye shape with its ends bending counter-clockwise. Its upper left end reached toward the roundish shape of NGC 4485. NGC 4490 had a core of low-medium brightness half the galaxy’s width. The galaxy's length covered about a seventh of the field, around 4′. NGC 4485 had a low-medium brightness core about half the galaxy’s diameter. 

Arp 266, NGC 4861, The Guppy in Canes Venatici

The Guppy, in Arp’s catalog category “Galaxy with irregular clumps”, is not part of the article. Its classification is ambiguous: it is sometimes described as a barred Magellanic-type spiral, even though it shows no spiral structure, and sometimes described as an irregular dwarf galaxy. The name Guppy comes from a giant H II region called Markarian 59 at its southern tip, the head of the fish, and a long diffuse stellar region, the body of the fish. It lies ~23 million light years away, its magnitude is 12.3, and its apparent size is 3.8′ × 1.5′.

I had already looked at this strange-looking galaxy at Calstar in April, but at the time I had mistaken its H II region for a star. So Steve called me to take a look at it again in his 14.5” StarMaster telescope with a 7 mm eyepiece and showed me the H II region located in the center of an equilateral triangle defined by three stars. The H II region looked like a star with direct vision but dimmed and softened with averted vision. The other stars stayed equally bright with averted vision. I could also see a faint glow, the body of the fish, between the H II region and the triangle star in the lower part of the field. 

NGC 5907, The Splinter Galaxy in Draco with SN 2026kid

NGC 5907 (Caldwell 30),  the Splinter Galaxy or Knife Edge Galaxy, is an edge-on spiral galaxy, not in the article either. Deep imaging shows a faint tidal stream wrapping the galaxy, evidence of a digested dwarf companion. NGC 5907 is currently famous for SN 2026kid, a Type II core-collapse supernova discovered on April 22, 2026 by Yasuo Sano. The supernova’s magnitude is roughly 15.5 to 16. NGC 5907 is located ~50 million light years away, its magnitude is 10.3, and its apparent size is 12.6′ × 1.4′.

In my 18” with a 7 mm eyepiece, the galaxy extended from 10.30 o’clock to 4.30 o’clock. It looked thin with a ragged top edge. SN 2026kid sat to the right of the nucleus, about 40% of the distance between the core and the edge of the galaxy, along the major axis. To find it, I looked at two stars on a diagonal above the galaxy, the first star was clearly visible right above the core, and the next star to the right appeared as a flash right above the supernova. I may have caught a glimpse of the supernova below the second star, perpendicular to the galaxy’s major axis, but I am not sure.

It is hard to trust seeing things with averted vision when one is at the edge of seeing. The peripheral rods in the retina are far more sensitive than the cones in the fovea but also noisier. The brain is doing signal detection trying to decide what is noise and what is signal, and expectations bias that decision. When you know exactly what you are looking for, the threshold for “I see it” drops. This phenomenon can make you see something that is not there. One trick is to tap the scope: a real object should shift with the scope, while an imagined object tends to wander. Better yet, ask a beginner who has no clue what they are supposed to see.

NGC 4559, Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices

NGC 4559, or Caldwell 36, is a loose barred spiral galaxy inclined 65° from face-on. It has a mottled, broken-armed appearance due to dust lanes, with many bright H II regions visible throughout. It hosts an unusual concentration of ultraluminous X-ray sources, including an intermediate-mass black hole candidate, NGC 4559 X-1. A small companion, UGC 7780, sits ~12′ northwest. NGC 4559 is a member of the Coma I cloud, a group of galaxies containing NGC 4565 (the Needle), NGC 4274, NGC 4314, and several other bright spirals. NGC 4559 lies at a distance of ~30 million light years, its magnitude is 9.8, and its apparent size is 10.7′ × 4.4′.

In my 18” with a 9 mm eyepiece, the galaxy was easy to find thanks to three stars across the top conveniently framing it. It looked like an irregular galaxy to me, lightly mottled. Its shape was roughly an oval of ratio 2.5:1. Its brightness rose gradually toward the middle: from very faint at the edge to low brightness halfway to the center, and then fairly even brightness across the inner half, forming an oval-shaped inner core. 

NGC 4244, The Silver Needle Galaxy in Canes Venatici

NGC 4244, or Caldwell 26, is a large edge-on spiral galaxy. It has a thin disk, no halo, no detectable bulge, and no supermassive black hole, which indicates a history without major mergers. It hosts a small nuclear star cluster, and possibly a small or medium sized black hole, but the latter hasn’t been detected. It is a member of the Canes Venatici I group, also called the M94 group, that includes M94, NGC 4214, NGC 4395, and a number of dwarf galaxies. It lies at a distance of ~14 million light years, its magnitude is 10.4, and its apparent size is 16.6′ × 1.9′.

In my 18” with a 9 mm eyepiece, it appeared as a very long 10:1 galaxy, with its brightness even from end to end. 

The moon shining through the trees

There were more galaxies in the article, but I had already looked extensively at the Whale galaxy and the Pup (NGC 4631 and NGC 4627), and the Hockey-Stick Galaxy (NGC 4656 and NGC 4657) previously, so I did not spend too much time on those, even though I was curious to see if the northern edge of the Whale was ragged. The remaining galaxies from the article were NGC 4605, NGC 5253, and the galaxy trio NGC 5981, NGC 5982, and NGC 5985. They would be first on my list for next time.

Around 3 am, I was surprised to see the moon showing up through the branches of the trees. It looked like a glowing dark gold-copper color in the middle of the canopy. There was something eerie about it. It was time to leave and drive back. A few miles farther, I was surprised to see that there was thick fog, like a boundary to cross between a peaceful world and the industrialized reality. More practically, the fog also probably shielded us from the light pollution, making the night particularly dark. 

[Muriel Dulieu Holzer]

I got my pictures mixed up. I posted the annotated picture of NGC 5907 in the paragraph about NGC 4244. 
Here is NGC 4244's picture:

-Muriel

[Richard Navarrete]

Another informative OR, Muriel. NGC 4449, the Magellanic dwarf you mentioned, intrigued me so I checked my logs. I observed this galaxy in a 12.5” dob in 1999, about the time you were born. ;-)

Richard

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[Steve Gottlieb]

That’s a johnny-come-lately observation, Richard.  This one of NGC 4449 goes back to 1980 with a C-8  😁

"Bright, moderately large, elongated, bright core.”

Steve

On May 22, 2026, at 8:17 AM, 'Richard Navarrete' via The Astronomy Connection (TAC) <sf-ba...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Another informative OR, Muriel. NGC 4449, the Magellanic dwarf you mentioned, intrigued me so I checked my logs. I observed this galaxy in a 12.5” dob in 1999, about the time you were born. ;-)

Richard

Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

On Thursday, May 21, 2026, 1:06 PM, Muriel Dulieu Holzer <mdu...@gmail.com> wrote:

I got my pictures mixed up. I posted the annotated picture of NGC 5907 in the paragraph about NGC 4244. 
Here is NGC 4244's picture:

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/1632969105.3048525.1779463055456%40mail.yahoo.com.
<Stacked_66_NGC 4244_10.0s_IRCUT_20260513-233019.jpg>

[Richard Navarrete]

In 1980 all I had was an Orange C90 on a wobbly tripod, little brother to your C8.

Richard

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[Akarsh Simha]

On Fri, May 22, 2026 at 10:03 Steve Gottlieb <astrog...@gmail.com> wrote:

That’s a johnny-come-lately observation, Richard.  This one of NGC 4449 goes back to 1980 with a C-8  😁

"Bright, moderately large, elongated, bright core.”

Now that one is truly before I was born! Probably not before Muriel though.

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[Jamie Dillon, DDK]

My first time looking at 4449 was not too long after Richard's, at the end of April 2000, when a gang of us went down to Lake San Antonio to check the place out, at prompts from Bartolini the Shadow and Doug Hudgins.

Found it in a set with 4490 and 4485, "More face-on, long arm off to S, looks disordered, arms askew."

This was with Felix the 11".

[Russell Blackadar]

Just wanted to say, Omega Centauri does rise to visibility at Lake Sonoma if you set up your portable scope or binocs in one of the gaps between trees at edge of the higher half of the parking lot, looking south. (I say portable because you'd probably want to use a different spot for general observing.)

[Steve Gottlieb]

I’ve also observed it a few times from Lake Sonoma - just catch it close to the meridian with an unobstructed view due south. But I actually discouraged Muriel that night, since once you’ve seen Omega Cen from a proper southern latitude, the view at LS is a pale, mushy imitation. 

-- Steve

On May 31, 2026, at 12:16 PM, 'Russell Blackadar' via The Astronomy Connection (TAC) <sf-ba...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Just wanted to say, Omega Centauri does rise to visibility at Lake Sonoma if you set up your portable scope or binocs in one of the gaps between trees at edge of the higher half of the parking lot, looking south. (I say portable because you'd probably want to use a different spot for general observing.)

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[matthew marcus]

I've done it from the lower lot. See my last OR.
mam

On 5/31/2026 12:16 PM, 'Russell Blackadar' via The Astronomy Connection

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