NGC 3507 - Spiral Galaxy
NGC 3507 is a barred spiral of type "SBb" in the constellation Leo and was discovered in 1784 by F.W. Herschel. It has an apparent brightness
of 11.9mag and a size of 3.4'x2.9' arcminutes. Previously the distance was given as 45 +- 15 million light-years (i.e. with a very large error bar),
but more recent sources suggest a distance of 53 +-4 million light-years.
The true diameter of NGC 3507 is about 47,000 light-years, so the galaxy is not even half the size of our Milky Way. With a surface brightness
of just 14.7mag/'² it belongs to the LSB- galaxies (LSB:= Low Surface Brightness). The absolute magnitude of M= -18.8mag is also not very
high and corresponds to only 3 billion suns. There are no "High Velocity Clouds" in the body of the galaxy, which are conducive for star formation.
So it is assumed that there is currently only very little star formation. Nevertheless, some young star clusters are found along the spiral arms.
A supermassive black hole with a mass of 5.0 million solar masses is thought to be at the center.
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Arriving at the position of NGC 3057, I cranked up the magnification to 210x, because details in small galaxies are best seen at high magnifications.
You just have to be careful that the structures don't get too dark. The smaller and more compact a galaxy, the higher you can magnify.
After a short time the spiral arms became indirectly visible, but they were quite faint and did not really want to separate from the halo. Structures in
the arms were not to think of. Overall, however, a great sight, as the northern arm winds itself around a bright star. The core area is rather small and
I could not really see the bar. Again one more argument for a larger aperture... ;)
