Glen Sanner and I spent some time Oct 9, 2002, poking around the IC 5358 area with his 18.5" dob. Conditions were a bit hazy with a naked-eye limit of 6.2 near the zenith. These notes are adapted from some brief chicken-scratch taken at the scope and more of the same put down immediately after the session. Brackets indicate material added. We observed with the aid of a few charts and an image from Wassilieff's southern galaxy books, which helped in pulling apart a field which appeared to be confusingly dotted with galaxies near the threshold of visibility.
It is unclear to me whether a north-south string of galaxies closer to Delta Sculptoris should be considered a part of Abell 4038 or more generally part of the clump of galaxies around IC 5353 and IC 5358 or not. In any case some of these were observed as well.
Does anyone have any observations of this group to share? I think two more inches (or slightly less extinction) should have pulled out four or five more galaxies.
pgc 72403 - small, faint roundish and apparently fuzzy.
LEDA 85756 = DRCG 54 -59 = [S96b] ACO 4038 17 - somewhat brighter and larger than pgc 72403; slightly elongated SE-NW. Not difficult; sometimes obvious casually with IC 5353/IC 5354/IC 5358 appearing in echelon.
IC 5353 - large and easily seen. Not obviously condensed.
pgc 72423 - makes IC 5353 into a pair of galaxies. Easily seen; sharp fall off in brightness. Somewhat elongated SE-NW.
GSC 06987-01114 - faint and fuzzy looking. [Could have sworn this was a galaxy while looking at it.]
IC 5354-1 - large and easily seen, though smaller than [IC] 5353. Small star to south. [designation from Steinicke's database]
IC 5354-2 - easily split from -1. [designation from Steinicke's database]
pgc 72429 - a somewhat difficult, round galaxy.
pgc 72436 - small and faint though not difficult; comma or comet shaped extending to SW. Star or something to NE. [Could that star have been LEDA 85766 = DRCG 54- 44 and the star or object separated from it by 15"?]
IC 5358-2 - small and tight, clearly elongated e-w. [designation from Steinicke's database]
IC 5358-1 - big, with rather extended haze extending SE-NW, around strongly condensed center; appears core is situated somewhat asymmetrically being too far SE. [designation from Steinicke's database]
Sanner Object 1 = GSC 06987-00019 - Sanner observed. [Apparently suspecting it to be a galaxy. NED indicates this is 2MASXi J2347541-280955 = APMUKS(BJ) B234518.08-282637.3]
Medkeff Object 1 - Medkeff observed. Very faint and very small object, glimpsed about a dozen times over a period of a few minutes. Star? [We indicated this object with a pen on one of our charts. NED calls this 2MASXi J2347503-280908 = APMUKS(BJ) B234514.38-282548.8; but now that I've seen B for this object I question whether this is correct! May have been that Sanner's object above was seen, and I was confused regarding position.]
pgc 72451 - long oval galaxy, not strongly condensed; fainter 'wings' extend about half [the] length of the core.
pgc 72471 - moderate size and featureless, gradual fall-off of light. This galaxy is at the 'base' of a n-s chain which subjectively feels like a different group than preceding galaxies.
pgc 72469 - somewhat oval N-S. Smaller than pgc 72471.
pgc 72464 - small and round, though clearly not starlike. Fainter than either of the two previous.
pgc 72473 - small long oval, SW-NE. Somewhat more conspicuous than pgc 72464.
Unknown 2 - [Indicated on chart as seen. A star adjacent to pgc 72473; no NED entry apparently.]
pgc 72466 - big, round, and bright. Found while trying to get delta out of field.
pgc 72476 - smaller, round and easily seen but not as bright as pgc 72466.
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