Perhaps the most famous galaxy trio in our skies is the Leo Trio, comprising Messier Objects M65, M66 and the "Hamburger" galaxy NGC 3628. But did you know about "The Draco Group", an equally stunning trio? NGC 5985, NGC 5892 and NGC 5891 are bright and easy targets in larger telescopes, in a stunning linear alignment &mdmash; face on and edge on spiral galaxies bracketing an elliptical galaxy. The target is so easy to locate, just a bit less than two degrees mostly east of Draco's constellation figure star (I) Iota Draconis, almost equidistant from the Little Dipper's bowl as the Dipper's handle. At magnitude 3.2 you won?t miss Iota, and the easy hop to this great view!
This fine sketch by Hans-Jürgen Merk, an accomplished deep sky observer in Germany, will show what you might expect in the eyepiece.
The group was discovered by William Herschel in May of 1788 using a "Double eye glass" — essentially a binocular view. NGC 5985 is the bright face-on spiral, 5.5'x3.0' at magnitude 11.1, but surface brightness (SB) 14.0. NGC 5982, the center elliptical member is 2.6'x1.9' also at magnitude 11.1, but brighter at SB 12.9. The edge-on NGC 5981 is a dim slash 2.8'x0.5' magnitude 13.0, but brighter SB of 13.1.
This image from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey shows detail in all three objects:
If you like galaxy groups, you can search for the Hickson Compact Galaxy Catalogue, or Catalogue of Galaxy Trios by Miles Paul.
Happy hunting!
