flat galaxies from home

Busy work and family life (and now a bad cold) are conspiring to keep me home this new moon.  It's not dark until 10pm now, so time is limited.  I decided to use my night vision with by 20-inch dob to go after flat galaxies.  Having created a list (based on Huey's observing guide), I proceeded to collect as many observations as I would have had I traveled to a dark sky.  Using the night vision makes my 20-inch perform as if it was in a dark sky, easily a 3-point gain on the SQML.  It still has a small image scale, so the smaller flat galaxies were more difficult.  I used a 642nm long pass filter, and should have used a 685nm to more strongly push the light pollution back.  I sometimes adjusted the gain up to make the object brighter, if losing contrast in the graininess -- but could dial the gain back down to make the view more pleasing.  I observed over two nights, 5/30-31, until almost 1am each night.  Transparency was generally ok, getting hazier in the later hours.  Seeing was poor to start because of the temperature change between day and night, but improved as the night wore on.  In the notes below, the magnitude and the size follow the designation.  The images, from Huey's guide (DSS), are larger in scale than what was seen in the eyepiece.  

NGC 4517: 11.1b 11.2 x 1.5': Gorgeous, very long >10', very thin too around 5:1, ENE-WSW, a bright star touches the edge of the halo on the north side just west of center.  Mottled brighter central region, showing dark lanes, its tips fade very slowly out. 

IC 3322:  13.6b 3.8 x 0.5': Faint, very narrow, very slightly brighter in central region, 8:1 NW-SE.  

NGC 4356: 14.0p 2.8 x 0.5': Small, fairly bright spike 5:1 NE-SW, with a star just hovering SE of the central region. 

NGC 4330: 13.1b 4.4 x 0.8': Fairly faint, but quickly picked out in the center of a lopsided trapezium asterism, somewhat brighter in the middle and mottled.  5:1 NE-SW, small. 

IC 3311: 14.9p 2.9 x 0.3': Small but not too faint, obvious round bright core, pointed tips.  Small round NGC 4388 24' to the NW, showed a bright nucleus.

NGC 4565: 10.4b 15.9 x 1.8': Magnificent, huge, very bright. Nucleus is large and round and hazy, a long dark lane accentuates the halo which stretches 8:1 NW-SE, pointed tips.

NGC 4700: 12.6p 3.0 x 0.5'. A little small but bright, 6:1 NE-SW, in a triangle asterism.  The NW arm is cut off or truncated, so the core appears lopsided.  The bright center highlighted with a superimposed star.

NGC 4703: 14.5 4.0 x 0.7': Faint, small, but picked out easily enough to the NE of a bright star.  4:1 NW-SE, bright stellar core and a lopsided halo with maybe broken spiral arm.

NGC 4222: 13.9b 4.0 x 0.6'.  Small, long, thin, with a bright stellar core and long tapering tips, 8:1 ENE-WSW.  Another galaxy, inclined by not flat, NGC 4216, in the same field.

NGC 4157: 12.2 7.7 x 1.3': Beautiful, large and bright.  Long with a bright nucleus and core, and long mottled halo with a brighter section SW about midway out on that arm.  Tapering tips, in a rich filed of stars.

NGC 4244: 10.3v 17.7 x 1.9': Silver Needle. Faint and ghostlike, very large, nearly fills the field, the nucleus is a little brighter than the halo, and the halo fades slowly and imperceptibly. 8:1 NE-SW.

NGC 4183: 12.9b 6.3 x 0.8': Barely there, very faint, diffuse halo, needs averted vision to detect at first.  Fairly large, very nice!  The tips are extremely fine.  6:1 NNW-SSE.

NGC 5023: 12.9b 6.7 x 0.7': Brighter nucleus, faint halo, the NE end is quite faint.  Large, long, 6:1 NE-SW.

NGC 5229 14.3p 3.8 x 0.5': Very faint, need averted vision to detect it, but can hold from then.  Slightly brighter and elongated nucleus, the halos are short and very faint and appear to twist slightly?  8:1 nearly N-S.  Close to M51.  

NGC 4173: 13.6b 5.0 x 0.7': One of the four galaxies in "The Box" group of galaxies, all of which can be seen but at a disappointingly small image scale with night vision.  NGC 4173 itself is very faint, very long 5:1 NW-SE, with a brighter part of the halo lopsided to the NW.  NGC 4174 is a small smudge, NGC 4175 has a bright nucleus and short elongated arms, and NGC 4169 is a bright elliptical.

NGC 4738: 14.2b 2.3 x 0.4': Small, faint, 4:1 NE-SW, the halo appears twisted halo. 

IC 3247: 15.3p 2.3 x 0.4': Small, fairly faint but easily picked up, brighter elongated nucleus and diffuse tips, 4:1 N-S. [Incorrectly listed as NGC 4338.]

NGC 5466: Very loose Class IX globular, like a large open cluster, dominated by a couple dozen bright stars but with a haze of fainter stars in the center.

NGC 5634: Next to a bright orange star, stellar core is intensely packed with stars with sprays flung out in all directions fairly well concentrated bright,

NGC 4197: 13.4b 3.4 x 0.5': Easily picked up, moderate size, brighter elongated nucleus with diffuse tapering tips, below a star and a box asterism 

NGC 4268: 12.8; 1.6'x0.6' Easy, small, with a bright core, elongated 2:1 NE-SW.  There are six other faint galaxies in the field, notibly NGC 4273 which is a bright face-on spiral with a stellar nucleus, oval mottled halo. 

NGC 4289: 14.6b 3.8 x 0.3'. Faint, small, a bright nucleus and very, very thin halo N-S.  A bright (8.4 mag) star is close to its east.  

NGC 4761 13.8;  Size 0.4'x0.3': Hickson 62c: Very small scale, but I can see components A, B, and C of Hickson 62 easily.  I did not notice D.  This particular galaxy is elongated 3:1 N-S, with a bright stellar nucleus.

NGC 5496: 12.7p 4.7 x 0.8': Very weak glow, just barely picked up with averted vision and can hold it direct, uniform surface brightness, 5:1 N-S.

NGC 5907: 11.1b 12.9 x 1.3'.  Splinter Galaxy.  Huge bright stellar core, diffuse dusty halo which looks like a spinning coin just before it settles on the table.  Extremely long, 10:1, NNW-SSE.

NGC 5965:  12.6b 5.2 x 0.7': Small bright core, 5:1 diffuse halo with pointed tips NE-SW.  NGC 5963 in view to the SW, large and bright oval elliptical with a bright core.

NGC 5529: 12.8b 6.2 x 0.8' : Pretty field starry, in a loose boxy asterism.  Long, fairly bright, sharp tapering tips, stellar nucleus, 6:1 WNW-ESE.  I need to re-observe this as the halo bends lens-like, and there are several other faint galaxies in the field.

NGC 3432: 11.7b 6.8 x 1.4': Very pretty, bright, intermingled with stars, 5:1 NE-SW.  Elongated core is heavily mottled and lopsided to the SW, slightly bent halo, the NE halo is longer and much fainter, might be a tail.

NGC 3245A: 14.9p 4.2 x 0.4': Very bright stellar core and pointy elongated tips, very subtly twisted!  Small and faint, 6:1 NW-SE.  Quite a beautiful galaxy.