Top 10 galaxies

Seeing as there is plenty of cloud and rain around and people seem to be interested in "Top 10's", why not oyur top 10 galaxies? (Excluding the Milky Way)

My top 10 would be

LMC Naked eye even in moonlight. No more need be said
SMC Ditto!
M 31
NGC 1365 The easiest barred spiral to see spiral arms.
NGC 5128 Naked eye in dark skies. Dust lane easy in a 6".
M 33
NGC 1566 Spiral arms easy in a 10"
M 51
M 83
NGC 4565

Cheers

Maurice

I realised this morning that I had left out NGC 253. Old age and too much work preparing classes must be rotting the brain cells!!! Trouble is.... where to fit it in! Probably substitute it for NGC 1566.

Back to preparing for class. Venus and the Earth today!

Cheers,

Maurice

Great list - I had never heard of NGC1365 but popped it into my planetarium program and sure enough the notes say "Best example of spiral arms". I am surprised NGC7331 is not there and M33 is - I can't see M33 at all unless the skies are really dark, but NGC7331 has evident shape even from my terribly LP backyard - perhaps because I can jack up the power on it and get the background darker. Should M33 be so difficult? It was invisible to me in mag 4 skies last night with a 10" Dob at 50X.

Ryan O

Once again my favourite choices reflect the size of my telescope as well as my observing location. With an 8-inch just hints of spiral structure can be perceived in some of the larger and brighter face-on spirals whereas more detail can be seen in galaxies with large amount of dust. So here is my list:

1: M31 Dust lanes visible under excellent conditions
2: M82 The galaxy showing most detail in my scope
3: M51 Patience can reveal spiral structure
4: M33 Clearly mottled structure, hint of spiral
5: M81 Extremely bright. Nice doubles in field
6: M94 Incredible bright. Visible at full moon
7: NGC4631 Grand edge-on, nicely grouped with faint stars
8: M108 Obscuring dust visible
9: NGC2403 Major omission from Messier list (Cam)
10: NGC4889 Most distant galaxy visible in 8-inch (?)

The Sombrero galaxy can be seen from here, but it is very low. Probably it would be one the greatest favourites if I were located 10 degrees further south. There is a very high number of bright galaxies in the region Vir - Leo - CBr - CVn - UMa - Dra, many of which really would deserve a place on the list. Highly neglected is NGC4258 which is one of the brightest.