Draco(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
NGC5866 is a compact galaxy in the constellation of Draco.
And I wrote "M102" in parentheses; actually this Messier's number is informal because it's considered that Messier mistook M101 for M102.
Although recent researches tell this NGC5866 is M102, it's open to question whether telescopes in that time could catch such a faint celestial object with a long axis of 3 arc minutes and brightness of 10.8.
www.wingmakers.co.nz /Draco.html (1439 words)
RedOrbit - Gallery - M102, NGC5866(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
Some have concluded it was an erroneous duplicate observation of M101, a conclusion which Messier's friend and fellow observer Mechain stated some years after his original discovery.
However, a number of cogent arguments suggest that both men actually observed the Spindle Galaxy, NGC5866 in the constellation Draco, and it is this galaxy which is shown here.
It is a lenticular galaxy of type S0 (essentially a spiral galaxy without the spiral structure).
NGC5866 had somehow fallen through the cracks of previous sessions.
I found a site on the web today with nice pictures and a good summary of some reasons for thinking that Messier may have observed 5866 himself, regardless of whether Mechain did.
No matter what you think of M102, NGC5866 has earned a special place in my own heart as a single observation that brought an official end to both the Messier and Herschel 400 lists.
However, there are some that believe that the coordinates were wrong and Messier was really observing NGC5866.
M68 was a new observation for me. This object, coupled with seeing M83 and M102 (NGC5866), leaves only one more Messier object to go and I will have seen them all.
The last object is M62, which is a globular cluster in Ophiuchus.
M102 is an edge-on galaxy located in the constellation of Draco.
It has been suggested that this galaxy and the lenticular galaxy NGC5866 are one and the same, having been observed by Messier and Mechain.
It is rather small in size (5.2'x2.3') with a striking dark lane splitting the galaxy into 2.
www.heavenlyview.com /m102.htm (60 words)
5866llrgb(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
This galaxy is situated in the northern constellation Draco at RA 15h 06.5, Dec +55d 46' (2000.0).
It is the brightest member of the NGC5866 group, lying roughly 40 million light-years distant The 5.2' diameter of NGC 5866 correspondes to about 60,000 light-years, its globular cluster halo extends more far outward.
No supernovae have been discovered in this galaxy yet.
i ain't measuring it.) The NGC5866 presents an evenly lighted, possibly considered to be eliptical structure.
Caught in a superb stellar field, the NGC5866 becomes almost "eye" shaped with a bright core.
As I was patiently holding some of the perimeter stars and waiting for more structure to appear, I caught a quick glimpse of what may have been a dark dustlane that's definately a bit "off center".
As Venus peeked through the branches of a California coastal oak tree at dawn, I looked back on the previous 11 hours in a happy haze.
I had just observed 105 Messier objects out of the total 109, plus NGC5866 which most marathoners count for the Messier 102 boo boo, for an official grand total of 106 Messiers.
M101 is part of another and even M102 (NGC5866) is part of a galaxy group.
(Glowing: This unique view of the disk galaxy NGC5866 was taken by Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope, revealing a crisp dust lane dividing the galaxy into two.
NGC5866 lies in the constellation Draco, at a distance of 44 million light years.
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You are correct, Messier and Mechain (who found several of the objects listed in Messier’s catalog) both admitted that M101and M102 were one in the same object.
Like you said, most sources now list NGC5866 (the elongated galaxy in Draco) as M102.
You will have to find that one in order to complete the list.
Mirela Obric, PhD student at Kapteyn, obtained photometric-quality images of NGC7013 and NGC5866 with the Harris-R filter (6373/1491) for use in our modelling of these S0 galaxies.
M31 survey run using the wide-field-camera at INT.
