CRATER

by Steve Coe                       13.1" f/5.6 unless noted


NGC 3456  Faint, pretty small, elongated 1.5 X 1 in PA 110 and
somewhat brighter in the middle at 165X.  There is a 12th mag
star in contact with the NE side.

NGC 3511  Pretty bright, pretty large, elongated 3 X 1 in PA 10
and somewhat brighter in the middle at 135X.  There is a star
at either end of this galaxy.

NGC 3513  Pretty faint, pretty large, not brighter in the middle
and irregularly round at 135X.  In the field of NGC 3511.

NGC 3571  Pretty faint, pretty small, somewhat brighter in the
middle, elongated 2 X 1 in PA 75 at 165X.

NGC 3636  Pretty faint, small, round, somewhat brighter in the
middle at 165X.

NGC 3637  Pretty faint, small, round, somewhat brighter in the
middle at 165X.  In the field of NGC 3636, they are virtually
identical and these two galaxies form a small triangle with
and 8th mag bright yellow star.

NGC 3660  Faint, pretty large, irregularly round, somewhat
brighter in the middle at 135.  Averted vision makes it grow.

NGC 3672  Pretty bright, pretty large, elongated 2.5 X 1 in
PA 0, has a much brighter middle at 165X.  Averted vision makes
this galaxy grow in size.

NGC 3732  Pretty faint, small, round, somewhat brighter middle,
13th mag star 5' SW at 150X.  There is a large cluster of
galaxies to the north.

NGC 3865  Pretty faint, pretty large, little elongated (1.2 X 1)
in PA 45 and somewhat brighter in the middle at 165X.

NGC 3866  Faint, small, round and not brighter in the middle at
165X.  In the field of NGC 3865.

NGC 3887  Pretty bright, pretty large, irregularly round, very
gradually brighter in the middle, little elongated in PA 0
at 165X.  There is a 12th mag star on the NE side.  On a night
that I rated 9/10 at one of our best Arizona sites, I saw a
hint of bar structure in this object at 220X.

NGC 3892  Pretty bright, pretty large, elongated 1.2 X 1 in
PA 110 and somewhat brighter in the middle at 165X.

NGC 3955  Pretty faint, pretty small, much elongated (2.5 X 1)
in PA 165 with a bright middle at 165X.




NGC 3956  Faint, pretty large, much elongated (2.5 X 1) in
PA 60 and little brighter in the middle at 135X.  This is
a low surface brightness edge on galaxy.

NGC 3957  Pretty bright, pretty large, much elongated (3 X 1)
in PA 0 at 220X.

NGC 3962  Pretty bright, pretty large, elongated 1.5 X 1 in
PA 160 at 165X.  The bright middle in this object is almost
stellar at 220X, it seems consistently to have a central
point that is less than 2 arc seconds in size at high power.

NGC 3981  Faint, pretty large, elongated 2 X 1 in PA 0 at
135X.

IC 2627  Faint, pretty large, elongated 2 X 1 in PA 45 and
not brighter in the middle at 135X.






Double Stars

Aitken 1774  Tough to split at 165X, going to 300X helps some but
it is still just notched most of the time.  Light orange and
white.

Gamma CRT   Just split at 100X, better at 165X.  White and
light blue.

Jac 16  Nice at 135X, a delicate white and light blue pair.



Red Stars

R CRT  Nice dark orange contrasted with bright white Alpha
Crateri at 100X.