PGC 5186 ring galaxy in Cetus

[kisspeter]

While looking for a comet about a week ago we came upon a nice ring galaxy:
PGC 5186, MCG-3-4-61
Cetus,
RA: 01 24 30.79, DEC: -15 32 16.3, J2000,
14.4m

POSS2 blue image (15'):
3160

It was very low in the sky and the conditions were not ideal. We didn't see the ring in a 24" but the galaxy was bright. I can imagine that the ring might be visible in better conditions.

[Steve Gottlieb]

Here are my notes on MCG -03-04-061, also through a 24-inch. By the way, this ring galaxy apparently was discovered visually by E.E. Barnard while using a 12-inch refractor at Lick Observatory in October 1889. He didn't take the time to determine an accurate position or report the discovery (other than his logbook), so it didn't receive an IC designation (the NGC had already been published).

24" (12/21/16): at 282x; moderately bright, fairly small, slightly elongated, ~30"x25", moderately high surface brightness, brighter core with a faint stellar nucleus. Located 7.7' NNW of mag 6.2 HD 8589.and 5.6' WNW of BRT 604 = 12.0/12.0 pair at 5".

[Uwe Glahn]

Tried it yesterday under very good transparency but could not resolve the ring. Similar to Steve I could only detect the fainter halo around the slightly elongated core.