U 350
23:40 to 00:20
-28° to -39°
Phe, Scl

THE WORKING SURFACE of the Sculptor's work table is shown on this map. While the colourful renderings in Urania's Mirror, published in 1825, shows a bust and some tools on the table, in the sky some 260 galaxies may be found here.

FEATURED OBJECTS: NGC 7793, NGC 7507, IC 5332, NGC 7713, NGC 7484, NGC 7755, NGC 7513, NGC 7713A, Blanco 1, .

NGC 7484
MCG-06-50-026
RA 23:07:06
Dec -36°16.8'
Galaxy

h: "pB, S, R, gbM, attached to, or not much separated from, a star 8m just south of neb, 1' distant." On a second occassion he called it "not vF, S, R, appended to, and very nearly north of, a star 9m, the preceding of 2 stars, neb 90 degrees from star." His third observation was recorded as "F, R, glbM, pos 2.1 degrees, from a star 10m 30 arcseconds distant." The fnal record reads: "F, S, R, just north of a star 9m."

NGC 7507
ESO469-G019
RA 23:12:07
Dec -28°32.5'
Galaxy

Discovered in 1783 by William Herschel (H II-002): "pB S iF mbM."

h: "B, R, psvmbM, 1'."

Tom Lorenzin: "12M; 1' diameter; bright, small and round with very much brighter center; 14M stellar core and soft edges."

Steve Coe, observing with a 17.5" f/4.5 at 100X, notes: "Pretty bright, pretty small, round and has a brighter core at 100X. This galaxy looks somewhat like a globular cluster."

NGC 7513
ESO469-G022
RA 23:13:13
Dec -28°21.6'
Galaxy

IC 5332
MCG-06-51-012
RA 23:34:27
Dec -36°04.4'
Galaxy

G. de Vaucouleurs ("Galaxies and the Universe", Chapter 14 - Nearby Groups of Galaxies) notes that IC 5332 is perhaps a member of the Sculptor Group.

Steve Coe, observing with a 17.5" f/4.5 at 100X, notes: "Faint, very large, round, grows with averted vision at 100X."

NGC 7713
MCG-06-51-013
RA 23:36:15
Dec -37°55.4'
Galaxy

h: "pB, oval, or pmE, vgbM, 3'."

A supernova erupted in this galaxy in 1982 (16.0p)

Steve Coe, observing with a 17.5" f/4.5 at 100X, notes: "Faint, pretty large and elongated N-S at 100X. It has a somewhat brighter middle at 135X."

NGC 7713A
MCG-06-51-014, ESO347-G030
RA 23:37:09
Dec -37°42.4'
Galaxy

NGC 7755
ESO471-G020
RA 23:47:50
Dec -30°31.3'
Galaxy

h: "B, L, R, psbM, 2' diam." On a second occassion he called it "B, L, R, psmbM, 90 arcseconds diam."

NGC 7793
MCG-06-01-009
RA 23:57:58
Dec -32°34.3'
Galaxy

This spiral galaxy in Sculptor was discovered by G.P. Bond in 1850 at Harvard College Observatory. The NGC description reads: "Like a comet".

Its cometary appearance led to its inclusion in Jack Bennett's catalogue of "Comet-like Objects South of the Celestial Equator" where it was included as No. 130. His coded description describes it as an extended object, very faint, easily missed.

Houston notes this bright open spiral has an estimated visual mag of 9.

Sanford writes: "It is a member of the South Galactic Pole group of galaxies, which includes NGC 45, NGC 55, NGC 247, NGC 253, NGC 300, and NGC 7793. This loose grouping has been characterized as the nearest group of galaxies there is beyond the Local Group, which is centred on our Milky Way Galaxy."

Tom Lorenzin: "9.7M; 6' x 4' extent; fairly large and bright, NE-SW-oriented ellipse with bright stellar core; quite a pretty sight! !good supernova prospect!."

Steve Coe, observing with a 17.5" f/4.5 at 100X, notes: "Pretty bright, large, round, bright middle at 100X. At 165X, there are two brighter shells which surround the core. The stellar core and concentric shells around it were only seen on the best of nights."

Sandage and Tammann (1975, Astrophysical Journal, 196, 313-328) includes this galaxy in the South Polar Group. Members include NGC 24, NGC 45, NGC 55, NGC 247, NGC 253, NGC 300 & NGC 7793.

Other names: "E349-12". Inclination: (face-on, in degrees) 45 Total photoelectric blue mag 9.63 Logarithm of the angular diameter D25 (arcminutes) 1.97 Blue photographic magnitude 9.63 This galaxy is included in a sample of galaxies with velocity less than 500km/s with respect to the centroid of the Local Group. [Nearby Galaxies. Schmidt K.-H., Priebe A., Boller T. (Astron. Nachr. 314, 371 (1993))]

11x80: "Distinct, round nebulous patch, light evenly distributed, no nucleus but rather broad centred. Reasonably easy to spot." (exurban skies, seeing 7, transparency 7, sky darkness 6, lim.mag. at south pole 6.0 (naked eye), 10.7 ) [AS]

Blanco 1
Zeta Scl cl., ESO409-SC009
RA 00:04:07
Dec -29°49.9'
Open cluster

The discovery of this cluster was announced in 1949. (Blanco V M (1949) PASP Vol 61 No 361 p183). Blanco writes: "While counting stars of spectral type A0 in Kapteyn's Selected Areas at high galactic latitude, the writer found that Select Area number 140 had about five times the average number of A0 stars brighter than the 9th mag present in other areas at similar galactic latitudes ... A definite cluster was found centred at 23:59.1 -30° 30' (1900). The cluster stars are loosely distributed over an area approx. one and a one-half degrees in diameter. Although the stars form an obvious cluster when selected in the above manner, they do not form a conspicuous group when observed against the background stars. The number of stars in the cluster that are of the twelfth magnitude or brighter is about 30 ... the distance to the cluster .. is 250 parsecs. The cluster may be classified as type IIIP in Trumpler's system ... The earliest spectral type possibly present is B5 (Zeta Sculptoris) and later types from B9 to G0 are fairly well represented."