Planetary Nebulae - Part 1

Some Fascinating Planetaries Inhabit 

the Constellations of the Winter Southern Skies 

Part I. Bipolar planetary nebulae

A winter starry night anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere shows a region in the sky, between Right Ascension 12 and 19hs, where some constellations like Crux, Centaurus, Norma, Ara, and Sagittarius host some interesting planetary nebulae. The four planetaries included in part I of this article have a common morphology, all of them are so-called "bipolar planetary nebula". Bipolar planetaries is one of the five types in the morphological classification by Schwars et. al. (1992), i.e. Elliptical (e), Bipolar (b), Point symmetrical (p). Irregular (i), Stellar (st).

If you have at least an 8-inch telescope all of the planetaries mentioned in this article are visible. Of course, you will be able to find more features or analyze their morphologies in more detail if you observe them through a bigger instrument. 

The Boomerang Nebula

The Boomerang Nebula  © APOD

According to the paper "Alma Observations of the Coldest Place in the Universe: The Boomerang" by R. Sahai et. al. (2013) the Boomerang Nebula, discovered by Wegner & Glass (1979), holds the distinction of being the coldest known object in the Universe (Sahai & Nyman 1997: SN97). The Boomerang is a bipolar Pre-Planetary Nebula1 (PPN), representing a short-lived (∼ 1000 yr) transition phase during which Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars and their round circumstellar envelopes (CSEs) evolve into planetary nebulae (PNe) with a breathtaking variety of aspherical geometrical shapes and symmetries (e.g., Sahai, Morris & Villar 2011).

If you look for this object, do not be confused by another object with the same name, the interacting pair of galaxies ESO 296-11 (also VV 578), situated in constellation Phoenix and showing a V-shaped structure.

A good way to find the peculiar Boomerang nebula is to look for the well-known constellation Crux (the Southern Cross) and use one of its bright stars, Gacrux (visual magnitude 1.6), as a starting point (see map below).

Another useful star is magnitude 3.5 

ESO 296-11, an interacting system

μ (Mu) Crucis which is, in fact, a nice double star to see. The target forms with this star and Gacrux a roughly equilateral triangle, so having this in mind you can aim your telescope to the precise area to scan and identify it.

Although the Boomerang Nebula is situated in constellation Centaurus, you can use constellation Crux as a guide to find this mysterious object of the Milky Way. Picture taken using the Photopic Sky Survey ©Nick Singer.

Figure 1. The proto-planetary nebula as seen in a 1 degree field of view.
North is up.

I observed this object using an 8-inch reflector telescope, with the zone under study high in the sky (about 53°) in the first hours of a clear and steady winter night. At low magnification (42x) the 1-degree field shows the brightest stars grouped in the west side of it (see Figure 1). The pair of stars and the Y-shaped pattern indicated with blue ellipses helped to confirm that I was in the correct zone to find the nebula. Even at this low magnification, the nebula is within the reach of an 8-inch telescope, which surprised me. However, it was barely glimpsed using averted vision. Pay attention to the center of the field, I have linked there some stars I used to reach the accurate position of "Boomerang". This nebula forms, with other three stars, a sort of "trapezium". The proto-planetary looks very dim, like a small hazy star or spot. This is one of the many objects in the sky that can be overlooked if you scan the region at low magnification without a detailed chart because it does not look very different from the surrounding stars that populate the field. Two very faint stars are situated very close to the proto-planetary. This should be taken into account when we use low magnification because maybe we are detecting the glare of these stars along with the dim nebula. Higher power will tell us if we can discern the Boomerang nebula from these cosmic neighbors.

A UHC filter does not help to improve the view of this small and faint object. In fact, I could say that the view is a little worse than that without the filter.
The view through the Orion Ultrablock filter is a little better than that of the UHC and similar to that obtained without filters. 

At 78x the view becomes more interesting with the nebula more clearly visible using averted vision. For moments, it is visible with a star-like appearance with a small and faint hazy envelope.

Figure 2. DSS image (15`x 15`) of the Boomerang Nebula

The pair of very faint stars (for an 8-inch telescope) can be barely glimpsed. At this magnification, the nebula can be discerned from the nearby stars (see Figure 2). The UHC filter at this magnification is not useful to improve the view of the object under study. On the other hand, the Orion Ultrablock filter worked in a similar way of that at lower magnification being a little more useful than the UHC filter.
Even if the proto-planetary is a faint object it is visible even with direct vision at 106x. The nearby stars can be discerned and Boomerang looks like a faint star surrounded by a small nebulosity. Its elongated shape, evident in photographs, is not visible through an 8-inch so far. The result of using nebular filters (UHC and Orion Ultrablock) is the same as that at lower magnifications.

At 196x, the view is interesting as well. The nebula appears faint but its nebular nature is clear. It looks rather smooth in brightness and its bipolar shape could not be seen.







Menzel 1

Map showing the position of the planetary Menzel 1. Although it is situated in constellation Norma, it lies close to the stars of the small constellation Circinus.
Picture taken using the Photopic Sky Survey ©Nick Singer.

Look at the map above. This peculiar planetary nebula (also known as PK322-2.1) is situated in the southwest corner of constellation Norma, almost on the border with constellation Circinus. Menzel 1 is situated only a few arc minutes apart from the stars ɤ and β Circini (visual magnitudes 4.5 and 4.1 respectively) so you can use them as a starting point to find the planetary among the stars. According to the paper "Three-Dimensional Photoionization Structure and Distances of Planetary Nebulae. II. Menzel 1" by Hektor Monteiro et. al. 2005), Menzel 1 or G322.4-02.6 (R.A. 15^h34^m 17.002, Dec. -59° 09.05, [J2000.0]) is a bright object with a bipolar morphology and a prominent central ring of enhanced emission.

Figure 3. DSS image of Menzel 1

At low magnification (42x) a field rich in stars is visible. This is understandable if we consider that this object lies in a region of the sky at low galactic latitude (approx. b=2.5°). The asterism labeled with a red ellipse in Figure 3 was very useful to find the accurate position of this planetary nebula that is almost unnoted among the big number of the Milky Way`s stars seen in that line of sight. Menzel 1 is barely visible at this low magnification appearing faint, round in shape, and smooth in brightness. The UHC filter undoubtedly enhances the contrast of this planetary nebula, showing the same features mentioned above.
The view through the Orion Ultrablock filter improves also but the contrast is not so good like that obtained with the UHC filter.

At 78x Menzel 1 is seen more easily, rather round in shape and with a smooth surface. However, it looks sharper through a UHC filter. For moments, using averted vision, a point-like feature seems to be visible within it. The view also improves using the Orion Ultrablock filter with the nebula appearing rather round and smooth in brightness.

At 106x the planetary is visible even with direct vision like a smooth and round disk. At this magnification the planetary looks very detached when using a UHC filter being pretty obvious in the field of view. Using averted vision, a few brighter dots seem to be visible within Menzel 1. The view with the Orion Ultrablock at this power is similar. 

Figure 4

An analysis of this object using 266x makes it possible to see, for moments, small brighter zones inside the rather smooth in brightness planetary Menzel 1. Using the Orion Ultrablock filter, the planetary appears to show a very slight oval shape.










Menzel 2

Menzel 2 in the Southern Sky. Picture taken using the Photopic Sky Survey ©Nick Singer.

Figure 5. Picture of Menzel 2. Astronomers found that
the star at the upper right is, in fact, the central star of 
the nebula. Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble/Serge Meunier.

This small and faint planetary nebula (also PK 329-02.2) is hard to see through an 8-inch telescope when you scan the field at low magnification (e.g. 42x). Situated about 21 arc minutes southeast of the 5 magnitude star κ (Kappa) Normae (see map above) which is, in fact, the brightest star in the 1° field of view centered in the object under study, Menzel 2 is barely glimpsed at the mentioned low power in a field rich in faint stars. You can move the telescope that angular distance to find the target or you can also use a group of faint stars, linked with blue lines in Figure 6 below, to find it.

According to the book "The Physics and Dynamics of Planetary Nebulae" (Grigor A. Gurzadyan 1997), Menzel 2 is bipolar and also has two envelopes, and furthermore, there are traces of spiral structure on the second envelope. The planetary, about 7,700 light-years distant, lies between the stars TYC 8715-1172-1 and GSC-8715-1518 (visual magnitudes 10.3 and 10.9 respectively), appearing like an extremely faint and very small nebulosity when you observe it using averted vision.

Figure 6. Menzel 2 lies not too far from the naked eye star Kappa Normae. 

North is up. East to the left.

The use of a UHC filter improves a lot the view and therefore its detection. I used the "Blinking" method to notice how Menzel 2 jumps into view when you use this nebular filter. The appearance through this kind of filter is very contrasted looking like a small, round, and smooth patch. The Orion Ultrablock filter also improves the view but it is not as good as that achieved with the UHC filter.

Higher magnification (e.g. 78x) makes the detection of the planetary easier. At this power, it is visible even with direct vision and without a filter. However, to use averted vision improves its visibility. With the UHC filter and this magnification the view of the planetary es clear. I should say that it is a good power and filter to have a good view of Menzel 2. It is obvious among the stars in the field, even with direct vision, appearing round and smooth in brightness. A similar view is achieved using another filter, the Orion Ultrablock.

It is named after the astronomer Donald Menzel who discovered the nebula in 1922. The nebula forms a winding blue cloud that perfectly aligns with two stars at its center (see Figure 5).

Figure 7

106x makes possible to see the planetary easily, appearing round. Observing carefully using averted vision the rim of the planetary nebula seems slightly brighter, suggesting an annular shape. The DSS image of Menzel 2 shows a bright rim, giving an annular shape to the inner part of this planetary. Actually, the V-V classification for this planetary is 4(3). Through the UHC filter, its eastern edge (left in Figure 7) seems to appear slightly brighter, showing the planetary nebula some trace of ring structure.

A nebulosity with a darker central area is visible at 266x.

Hubble 5

Hubble 5, a planetary nebula immersed in our Milky Way`s bright band. Picture taken using the Photopic Sky Survey ©Nick Singer.

Figure 8. Hubble 5. Credits: Bruce Balick
(University of Washington), Vincent Icke
(Leiden University, The Netherlands), Garrelt
Mellema (Stockholm University), and NASA.

This object is situated on the border between constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius, about 1° from the galactic center. Hubble 5 is the fourth bipolar Planetary nebula – after NGC 7026 (Gruendl et al. 2006), the transitional object NGC 7027 (Kastner et al. 2001), and the possibly symbiotic system Menzel 3 (Kastner el al. 2003) – with suspected diffuse X-ray emission and only the second Type I PN is known to display X-ray emission (paper "Serendipitous XMM-Newton Detection of X-ray Emission from the Bipolar Planetary Nebula Hb 5", Rodolfo Montez Jr. and Joel H. Kastner 2009).

According to J. A. Lopez et. al. in their paper "Morpho-kinematic analysis of the point-symmetric, bipolar planetary nebulae Hb 5 and K 3-17, a pathway to poly-polarity" (2012), this planetary shows a tight waist with a bright core. From the core emerge a complex set of filaments distributed as in a rosette configuration. For Hubble 5 some of these filamentary loops are proven for the first time in this work to actually be secondary expanding lobes. The nebular nucleus of Hubble 5 is very complex.

Figure 9. Stars patterns you can use to find this Milky Way planetary nebula.

As a consequence of staying close to the galactic center, immersed in the band of our Milky Way (see map above), the field shows a big amount of stars, mainly faint. That is the view I had at low magnification, with a field showing no asterisms or distinctive patterns of stars that can help to find the accurate place where Hubble 5 lies.

Even if you can use the naked-eye star 3 Sagittarii as a guide to find Hubble 5, you can also use a rich open cluster situated not too far from it. This cluster is nicknamed "Tom Thumb Cluster" (NGC 6451). Due to it is the most conspicuous object in the vicinity of Hubble 5, you should know that this planetary nebula lies just 39 arc minutes to the northwest of this stellar swarm, in case it unexpectedly be found first. Thus you can use it as a starting point to jump to the target.

There exists an HII region in the Local Group galaxy NGC 6822 which is known as Hubble V. Be sure to avoid troubles if you try to find a DSS image of the planetary nebula using the DSS-MAST-STScI web page. It will show a picture of that extragalactic HII region, at least you put "PN Hubble5" in the search box.

At 42x, Hubble 5 can be glimpsed. However, it is "hidden" among the surrounding stars of similar brightness, so that its identification is a little difficult. A good sky chart and a detailed field of view showing the surrounding stars is a must to get success searching for this planetary nebula. The blinking method, using a couple of nebular filters, was a good way to see Hubble 5 standing out among the stars at this low power.

Figure 10. DSS plates

At a little higher magnification (78x) the view is more clear and easy. Although it looks rather stellar in appearance, some of nebulous appearance starts to appear (faint star surrounded by subtle nebulosity). Using a UHC filter the planetary nebula is better viewed. A similar result was achieved using the Orion Ultrablock filter, offering a sharper image of Hubble 5.

106x. At this magnification the planetary nebula is clearly visible even without a filter, appearing very slightly elongated and rather hazy in appearance. When Hubble 5 was seen using averted vision, two faint dots come into view, very close to each other and embedded in some nebulosity. At this power, the UHC was more useful than the Orion Ultrablock filter to improve the contrast of the target through the 8-inch telescope.

A final observation at 148x made possible to see the very tight pair of stellar features or dots. One of them is brighter. In the paper "The Complex Ionization Structure of the Planetary Nebula Hubble 5" Angels Riera et. al. (2000), the researchers state that there is a blow-up of the core region and no central star is observable, though ionization gradients all "point" to the dense center of the core. After checking the blue filter image provided by the STScI Digitized Sky Survey, the appearance of the planetary nebula through that filter is exactly the same I had of the planetary nebula, with the two starlike features (see lower panel in Figure 10). The brighter dot I saw seems to be the bright core visible in the colorful picture in Figure 8. Not too many details can be visible through an 8-inch telescope in small objects like this one. Surely, a more detailed report will be achieved in the future using a bigger telescope. 


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1_ A protoplanetary nebula or preplanetary nebula (PPN) is an astronomical object which is at the short-lived episode during a star's rapid stellar evolution between the late asymptotic giant branch (LAGB) phase and the subsequent planetary nebula (PN) phase.

The N214C Nebula

An Emission Nebula, Containing a Rare Feature, Resides in a Nebulae Complex Tens of Thousands of Light Years Away From Us

Well, do not be afraid of the strange name of this object. It is, after all, an NGC nebula that any observer can detect when observing from the Southern Hemisphere even with telescopes as small as 8-inch of aperture.

Figure 1. The position of N214 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. North is up.

N214C1 (also NGC 2103, DEM L2 293, and MCELS L367) is an emission nebula included in the catalog of LMC emission nebulae published in 1956 by Karl Henize. This object was originally discovered by John Frederick William Herschel in 1834. With an estimated visual magnitude of 10.8, it is the brightest portion of a bigger nebula complex-N214-situated about 2° 15ʹ south of 30 Doradus, the most conspicuous nebular structure in our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. N214 is one of the southernmost complexes in our satellite galaxy, lying south of the stellar bar of that galaxy. It is a remarkable ongoing star-forming region containing at least 8 components, most of them very faint (see Figure 2) according to F. Meynadier, M. Heydari-Malayeri, and N R. Walborn in their paper “The LMC HII region N214C and its peculiar nebular blob”. This nebula holds the OB association3 LH 110 (Lucke & Hodge).

Most of the components are out of the reach of an 8-inch telescope, with N214C being the biggest and brightest portion by far, thus being visible through that kind of optical instrument.

At 42x, this object is clearly visible even without any nebular filter, looking like a slightly north-south elongated nebulosity of smooth brightness. A more detailed observation makes possible to detect, for moments, some brighter dots within it. Through a UHC filter, N214C is, undoubtedly, a conspicuous nebula. The filter improves the contrast of this HII region. Its overall shape is slightly elongated and its western edge looks a little less bright than the rest of this nebula (see lower panel on Figure 2).

Figure 2. The N214 complex (upper panel)

and the N214C nebula (lower panel) with

its two features. DSS image. North is up,
East to the left.

78x – At this magnification, N214C appears somewhat elongated ( overall oval shape of N214C) and some stars members of the OB association LH110 start to be discerned. These faint stars, embedded in the smooth nebulosity, have a longitudinal distribution coincident with the elongated direction of the HII region. In the central area of the nebula the brightest star of the whole object can be glimpsed, Sk -71°514, which is the main exciting source of the HII region and, in fact, is not a single star but a compact cluster (Garmany & Walborn 1987). It has at least 6 members (massive stars) in an area 4" wide. 

Using a UHC filter the view of N214C is interesting, being noticeable against the background sky with its shape being slightly elongated. An inner brighter zone containing at least one star or bright dot is visible at this power for moments using averted vision. This zone seems to have a slight elongation and its edges look somewhat fainter, with one of them appearing wider than the other. Orion Ultrablock filter helps to see the entire nebula more detached but it is not as useful as the UHC.

At 106x, N214C is an evident nebula at this higher power, appearing slightly oval in shape and showing a star-type feature in its central part matching with the position of the aforementioned stellar cluster SK-71°51. On the north-northwest corner of the nebula (see Figure 2) what seems to be a very small nebulosity, fainter than the central cluster, can be glimpsed with averted vision, with a relative position with the Sk cluster almost parallel to the three stars took as reference (linked to each other with white lines on Figure 2). The opposite region, the southern zone of the nebula, looks narrower.

Through a UHC filter, this part of the nebulae complex looks pretty detached from the background sky. Some dark areas seem to be present within N214C, jumping to the view when is observed at this power. For moments, SK -71°51 also clearly jumps to the view. 

Figure 3. HEB in N214C. Photo by ESO

At 146x, N214C looks  elongated with SK -71°51 being clearly visible even with direct vision. More difficult to see (averted vision is necessary) is the stellar-shaped feature in the north-northwest region. That object matches with the position of the most remarkable feature of N214C (labeled as HEB5 on Figure 2), a globular blob of ionized gas at ∼60" (∼15 pc) north of Sk −71◦51 to which attention was drawn by Walborn et al. (2002). In photographs like that taken by ESO, it appears as a sphere split into two lobes by a dust lane (see Figure 3) which reminds me of a small version of the Centaurus A galaxy. The Blob`s mass would be ∼100 Mʘ. It appears as a sphere about four light-years across. Do not expect to see anything remotely similar to that through an 8-inch telescope though. The compact HII region discovered in N214C may be a newcomer to the family of HEBs (High Excitation Blobs) in the Magellanic Clouds, the first member of which was detected in LMC N159 (Heydari-Malayeri et. al.). The H II blob coincides with a strong infrared source, 05423-7120, which was detected with the IRAS satellite. 

The view with UHC filter shows N214C more round than the view without this filter. The sight through the Orion Ultrablock filter seems to be better than that through UHC at this high magnification.

Bigger telescopes will surely show more features of the N214C nebula and more subtle details on the features visible with smaller telescopes. 

Figure 4. DSS image

How to find N214

This complex lies in constellation Mensa, an inconspicuous group of stars between constellations Hydrus, Volans, and Dorado that are easier to identify in the summer nights from the Southern Hemisphere.

Figure 4 shows a 1-degree field of view centered on N214 (R.A. 05 40 54   Dec. -71 14 42), about 2° 15ʹ south of 30 Doradus as I said before. As you can see, N214 is, by far, the most prominent feature there. The other components of the complex, situated upper right of N214C in the DSS image here (i.e. N214A, B, D, E, F, G, H), and see in more detail on Figure 5, where the 7 faint components of the N214 HII complex are labeled, are targets for owners of big mirrors and/or astrophotographers. The positions of the components in Figure 5 were taken using data from the SIMBAD Astronomical Database.

If you have the opportunity of observing this small nebula immersed in our satellite galaxy in a clear and dark summer night from any place in the Southern Hemisphere, remember that some peculiar features reside in the depths of this deep sky object.

Figure 5. DSS image

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1_ LHa-120 N is the full name of an entry in the Henize catalog of LMC emission nebulae. "L" refers to the Lamont-Hussey Observatory of the University of Michigan; "Ha" means the Hydrogen-alpha emission line, the key signature line used in the survey; "120" refers to the plate number (objective prism plate) for the LMC; "N" labels the object as a nebula, as distinct from a star (label "S").

2_ DEM is a catalog of 357 nebulae in the Large Magellanic Cloud and 167 nebulae in the Small Magellanic Cloud that was published in 1976 by R.D. Davies, K.H. Elliot, and J. Meaburn. The LMC catalog is DEM L and the SMC catalog is DEM S.

3_ The concept of a stellar association was originally introduced in 1949 by V. A. Ambartsumian, who later separated them into OB and T associations (Ambartsumian 1968). Morgan, Sharpless, & Osterbrock (1952) considered as a stellar association any loose group of stars within an area where bright OB stars exist and with evidence of a common origin.

A recent definition of a stellar association (Kontizas et. al. 1999) refers to it as a single, unbound concentration of early-type luminous stars, embedded in a very young star-forming region.

4_ Sk-71◦51 is the abbreviation of Sanduleak -71◦51. The American astronomer Nicholas Sanduleak published an important list of objects (stars and nebulae showing emission lines in their spectra) in the Magellanic Clouds in 1970. The “-71” in the name is the declination of the object, while the “51” is the entry number in the catalog.

5_ HEB (High-excitation blobs) are very dense, small regions (∼4 00, to 1000, in diameter corresponding to ∼1–3 pc)that are often observed lying adjacent or projected onto giant HII regions and are younger than the associated giant HII regions.

UGCA 334 - The Hardcastle`s Galaxy

OBSERVING REPORT

UGCA 334 - GALAXY IN CENTAURUS (THE HARDCASTLE NEBULA)

Date: February 9, 2016
Time: 01:30am local time (04:30am UT)
Telescope: 8" (20cm.) f/6.5
Observer: Leo Cavagnaro

Click on the image to enlarge

Finder Chart

13h 12m 56s   -32 41' 18" (J2000.0)

How to find it,
About 4°30' to the north-northwest of the 2.8 magnitude star Iota (ɩ) Centauri.

Stars in map up to visual magnitude 6.

Go to a good observing site and wait for sunset. Once you have very

dark skies aim your telescope to the north part of the constellation 

Centaurus to try to catch the Hardcastle`s Galaxy.
Photo taken by Leo Cavagnaro from the observing site.

If you are the owner of an 8-inch telescope or similar and want to observe this faint galaxy, just put your eye to work! Moreover, you need a very dark and steady sky to try to glimpse this "ignored galaxy". I say "ignored" because there is not too much bibliography and information about it taking into account that it is a target that several amateur observers can include in their observing projects. Well, maybe that has sense because there are much more interesting objects in the area where UGCA 334 resides like the big and beautiful galaxy Messier 83, situated about 6° east-northeast of it, or the less conspicuous but still interesting galaxy NGC 5102, which lies 4°5 southeast of UGCA 334, very close to the bright star Iota (ɩ) Centauri.

The Uppsala General Catalogue (UGC) is a list of galaxies published by Peter Nilson in 1973. It lists a total of 12,940 objects and is limited to the sky north of Declination -2°5. UGCA is an addendum of the Uppsala General Catalogue. According to Brian Cudnik in his book "Faint Objects and How to Observe Them" UGCA is a supplement that contains 444 objects of special interest south of the declination limit. However, I have found some UGCA galaxies with positive declination like UGCA 86 and UGCA 92 in Camelopardalis. UGCA 334, named "Hardcastle Nebula" by the SIMBAD Database and cataloged in that website as a "Galaxy in Cluster of Galaxies", is one of such objects. It is, undoubtedly, a faint galaxy, but it is bright enough to be seen with bigger telescopes that several observers usually have (e.g. 12, 18, 24-inch).

DSS image of UGCA 334. North is up.

I observed this galaxy in early February 2016, when constellation Centaurus reaches a good altitude around 1am local time and later, being visible just a few arc minutes of the zenith before sunrise.

UGCA 334 (also MCG-05-31-039, AM 1310-322, ESO 443-83), discovered by J. A. Hardcastle from the Franklin-Adams plates, reaches a very high altitude for any observing site at a latitude around -35°, so this part of the planet is perfect to try to see it. If you are as far north as +47° latitude the galaxy will be technically above the horizon, reaching about 10° when transiting the local meridian. However, I think this is not a good altitude to see a faint object like this one.

At least in projection, UGCA 334 lies very close to the galaxy cluster ACO 3544 (see map below) which appears listed in Table 4. Clusters of galaxies in the area of the Shapley Supercluster, in the paper "Structure and dynamics of the Shapley Supercluster" D. Proust et. al. 2006. However, I could not get enough information to find out if UGCA 334 is a real member of ACO 3544 or just a field galaxy. 

Using an 8-inch Newtonian telescope working at low magnification (42 and 78x) this galaxy was not visible. As a first step, I identified the pairs of stars indicated with blue ellipses on the image above. Observing carefully the area where UGCA 334 should be visible the result was unfruitful. Some ODM methods state that this galaxy, assuming that the magnitude value of 12.5 given by some sources is accurate, should be visible through an 8-inch telescope under a 6.6 limiting magnitude sky, being 107 the optimum magnification.

UGCA 334 and the core of the galaxy cluster ACO 3544 (green +) appear close to each

other in projection on the sky. 

Picture from AladinLite. Digitized Sky Survey - STScI/NASA, Colored & Healpixed by CDS

Applying higher magnification with one of my eyepieces (106x), and observing with averted vision under a dark sky, the galaxy could be barely glimpsed at times. It is a challenging object for a telescope of this size, so you need to stay at the eyepiece for some minutes and avoid even the polluted light of the site where you are observing from, by covering your head with a black cover. Try to be patient, even if the view is not clear you should see a very faint, small, very elongated, and smooth nebulosity. A ghostly image of a galaxy that looks like a lonely object in the southern sky.

The view of this galaxy with even higher magnification (148x) is similar, appearing smooth and elongated. It is a very challenging object, at least from my experience during that observing night.