M 60-ucd 1

[Jimi Lowrey]

I ran across this UCD paper last summer.http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.7707 It will be well placed this dark time for viewing. I know of no visual observations of this new UCD at this time so if you can catch it you will be one of the first to see this unusual object visually. It is very near M60 and is so far one of the brightest UCD's known.

RA
12 43 35

DEC
+11 32 04

1135

The SDSS photometry says the UCD is around V Mag 17 but it is in the halo of M60 and looks much bright than this on the poss 1 and poss 2 plates to me. It will be interesting to hear your observations positive or negative of this unusual type of object

[Paul Alsing]

Hey Jimi, Deb & I will be in Coonabarabran, Australia in 2 weeks, so I have already created a 'doc' for this guy, and we will give it a go using the 30" there. We both wish you and Connie could've come, too :>(

I can tell you that in SkyTools the closest labeled star is mag 15.1, and the UCD is somewhat dimmer than that on the DSS...

I will let you know how it works out...

[Jimi Lowrey]

Hope you and Deb have a great trip! Tell all the Guys down under Hello from me.

[Sue French]

For what it's worth, NOMAD give a visual magnitude of 16.6.

Sue

[Jimi Lowrey]

Thanks for the information Sue.

[Uwe Glahn]

We got it Jimi.

Frank and I tried this tough guy last days. Under bad transparency and seeing it pops in and out in Franks 20". In my 27" it was a little bit easier but we both could not hold the glow. One night later, also under not the best transparency but good seeing both stars (the UGC and the star 0,5' NW) were visible without big trouble. I could hold both stars together always for some seconds, unfortunately not steadily. I think under better transparency and NELM 7m+ it could be manageable with 20"-24" class?

[Jimi Lowrey]

Uwe I am glad you and Frank were able to see this unusual object. That is good news that Frank was able to catch the UCD in his 20".

[Paul Alsing]

The conditions in Coonabarabran were not good enough to see this guy, way too much water in the air... we needed a hair dryer every 15 minutes at times to dry the secondary... but John Hoey found this interesting video...

http://tinyurl.com/lkm5z42

[primefocuser]

As Paul said, the Coona air was sopping wet so contrast wasn't what it could have been. Body heat was enough to fog the ep if you weren't careful and the sky was decidedly not as dark as I remember it seven years ago.

According to this article, which describes the first discovered collapsed core glob in M31, http://tinyurl.com/mm3x76x, one fifth of globs in our galaxy exhibit core collapse characteristics. I would be surprised if a similar proportion of galaxies don't also have collapsed cores. Is anyone aware of any papers on this topic?

[Jimi Lowrey]

I had a positive observation of the UCD in M 60 last night under very good West Texas skies. My best view was at 610 X with bright M60 just out of the field. I found it not so easy because it is so near to M 60, when I put M60 just out of the field of view it made it a lot easer (direct vision). It appeared as a non stellar small fuzzy glow.

[Jimi Lowrey]

New research and findings on this unusual object.

http://www.universetoday.com/114604/surprise-tiny-galaxy-sports-a-huge-black-hole-and-there-could-be-more-like-it/

[kisspeter]

I'm a bit late but I think I'll post our observation anyway.

Together with Sandor Szabo we took a look at M60 UCD1 in May 2016 at Hakos, Namibia. Using a 16" Dobsonian it was negative (though I didn't give it everything). Using the 24" Dob we could see it as a faint stellar object but it was not easy at all. Nearby NGC 4647 was full of details. Based of the photos I thought this little galaxy would be much easier.

[Jimi Lowrey]

Peter all of the UCD's that I have seen appear as faint fuzzy stellar objects and M60 UCD 1 is typical of this class of object. What is interesting to me about UCD's is knowing that you are seeing the core of a galaxy that has been striped by its host galaxy.