First image with new Edge 9.25 scope reveals possible discovery.... Can i get peoples opinions please

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Bluetooth1989 avatar

Hi guys, i’ve just processed my first image using my new edge 9.25 hd scope. Given that it is not a very eye catching image i don’t think many people are going to view it, but i would really like some input/opinions on my possible discovery. It is not a massive one so please dampen your expectations. Here is the link to the image….

https://astrob.in/ngpuzt/0/

And i will copy my image description here as it basically describes my request:

Hi guys. So this is my first processed image using my new Edge 9.25 telescope. I decided to have a scan around for something unlisted and i happened to find an obvious smudge on the DSS atlas that appeared nameless. I then checked a few other surveys and noticed the same smudge, also unnamed.

I then searched simbad and it came up with no results within several arc minutes of my co-ordinates. I decided this would be my target for my first processed image. After imaging the first night, i confirmed there was indeed an object there, aswell as 2 other objects that appeared un named. So it was looking promising.

I then remembered there is a new sky survey happening in the southern hemisphere so i checked that out. To my disappointment it appears that the dr4 catalogue has indeed listed this object and it says it has been observed and flagged 3 times. The object being DR4: Object 458631639 (SMSS J085157.57-614955.1) which is the small galaxy looking smudge in the center of my image.

The second object is also listed, DR4: Object 458621808 (SMSS J085143.49-615933.7) which is the very faint smudge to the left of the image just below center which also looks like a galaxy.

However, the final object i have found does not come up in the search and as far as i can tell is indeed undiscovered. It is the round orb that is towards the top of the image just left of center. The image i have created is an LRGB. And the object clearly shows up in the RGB wavelengths. I have also just ran a night of Oiii and Ha data and it appears to have faint signal in both but it is not obvious and i could assume it is just stray rgb light on my 3nm filters as the whole object shows up in Oiii. I am not skilled enough to incorporate the oiii etc into my image and i feel it could misrepresent it as it does appear to cover the hole object. I did notice in my rgb though that the top section appeared to have a blue fringe and when checking the sky survey data from dss and simbad, it also represents a blue shift towards one edge.

As a very novice astro photographer I feel like i have no more i can give towards this object or target. I am also unaware if i have optical issues in my image train and having this subject as my first deep dive with my set up i feel is over my head. I also feel like it is just another one of the thousands of galaxies that we see every image we take and it has no significance. But on the off chance someone with more knowledge than i would see this it would be cool to know if it indeed could be something more interesting like a small planetary nebula?

Given that whenever i annotate an image i always get ridiculously small galaxies that i can hardly see come up listed (there is actually one in the top right corner, PGC153209) i find it strange that these objects have not been found yet which is one of the reasons i am hoping it could be something else?

Best case scenario i’ve finally discovered something and can put my name to something cool. Worse case i learn a bit and use it to help advance my search for those illusive undiscovered gems.

Thanks, Clear skies

Oscar H. avatar
It just looks like a small galaxy to me; its not impossible to find circular looking galaxies, and not uncommon to find small uncatalogued ones either. Just my opinion.
andrea tasselli avatar
As Oscar H rightly said there are plenty of uncatalogued small galaxies (more so in the southern hemisphere) but that hardly makes a "discovery", as they can also be seen on SDSS, as I did in this case. Cataloguing is hard work and someone got to pay for it…
Bluetooth1989 avatar

andrea tasselli · Jan 14, 2026, 10:30 AM

As Oscar H rightly said there are plenty of uncatalogued small galaxies (more so in the southern hemisphere) but that hardly makes a "discovery", as they can also be seen on SDSS, as I did in this case. Cataloguing is hard work and someone got to pay for it…

Can I ask how you found it on sdss? I didn’t know what it was so I searched sdss and found an sdss.org site? When I type the coordinates in there on radial search though it says there is nothing in within 5 arc minutes…. The coordinates for the orb object in question is 8 52 37. -61 51 26.

The message it comes up with is….

Your SQL command was:

SELECT TOP 10 p.apstar_id, p.apogee_id,p.ra, p.dec, p.glon, p.glat, p.vhelio_avg,p.vscatter, a.teff,a.logg, a.m_h FROM apogeeStar p JOIN fGetNearbyApogeeStarEq(133.154166666667,-61.8572222222222,5) n on p.apstar_id=n.apstar_id JOIN aspcapStar a on a.apstar_id = p.apstar_id JOIN apogeeObject as o ON a.apogee_id=o.apogee_id


No entries have been found

andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli · Jan 14, 2026, 10:30 AM

As Oscar H rightly said there are plenty of uncatalogued small galaxies (more so in the southern hemisphere) but that hardly makes a "discovery", as they can also be seen on SDSS, as I did in this case. Cataloguing is hard work and someone got to pay for it…

Can I ask how you found it on sdss? I didn’t know what it was so I searched sdss and found an sdss.org site? When I type the coordinates in there on radial search though it says there is nothing in within 5 arc minutes…. The coordinates for the orb object in question is 8 52 37. -61 51 26.

The message it comes up with is….

Your SQL command was:

SELECT TOP 10 p.apstar_id, p.apogee_id,p.ra, p.dec, p.glon, p.glat, p.vhelio_avg,p.vscatter, a.teff,a.logg, a.m_h FROM apogeeStar p JOIN fGetNearbyApogeeStarEq(133.154166666667,-61.8572222222222,5) n on p.apstar_id=n.apstar_id JOIN aspcapStar a on a.apstar_id = p.apstar_id JOIN apogeeObject as o ON a.apogee_id=o.apogee_id

No entries have been found

coord 08 51 58.8 -61 50 31.2 (ICRS, J2000, 2000.0), radius: 5 arcmin
Bluetooth1989 avatar

andrea tasselli · Jan 14, 2026, 11:53 AM

andrea tasselli · Jan 14, 2026, 10:30 AM

As Oscar H rightly said there are plenty of uncatalogued small galaxies (more so in the southern hemisphere) but that hardly makes a "discovery", as they can also be seen on SDSS, as I did in this case. Cataloguing is hard work and someone got to pay for it…


Can I ask how you found it on sdss? I didn’t know what it was so I searched sdss and found an sdss.org site? When I type the coordinates in there on radial search though it says there is nothing in within 5 arc minutes…. The coordinates for the orb object in question is 8 52 37. -61 51 26.

The message it comes up with is….

Your SQL command was:

SELECT TOP 10 p.apstar_id, p.apogee_id,p.ra, p.dec, p.glon, p.glat, p.vhelio_avg,p.vscatter, a.teff,a.logg, a.m_h FROM apogeeStar p JOIN fGetNearbyApogeeStarEq(133.154166666667,-61.8572222222222,5) n on p.apstar_id=n.apstar_id JOIN aspcapStar a on a.apstar_id = p.apstar_id JOIN apogeeObject as o ON a.apogee_id=o.apogee_id

No entries have been found


coord 08 51 58.8 -61 50 31.2 (ICRS, J2000, 2000.0), radius: 5 arcmin

Ah OK ye that’s just the simbad search function. All the targets in my image show up there visually in the image but none of them are labelled up. The object in the center IS labeled in the skymapper southern sky survey though which is what burst my bubble. However the other orb like object is not mentioned at all in any survey i’ve seen.

I do agree though that it is likely a galaxy that’s just un named… but most galaxies i’ve seen that are un named usually have a scientific name like those that show up in the link you shared… this one however has nothing at all associated with it as far as I can see. Which led me to believe it has been overlooked by those that have labeled up everything else in that area.

I always assumed simbad catalogue search had everything in it but now i’ve discovered it does not. I wish there was a site that would reference every data set so then I could actually see if stuff has been found before or not…. I’m pretty sure there’s still stuff out there to find

Edit : for reference my image is about 90 degree rotated to the view on simbad…. the orb is to the left in the survey map … you can see its blue hue more clearly on there than in my image

Andrew Murrell avatar

I used Simbad to find the object with accurate coordinates. I then looked in NED and found the object you have photographed. You can learn about it here. By Name | NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database . You can see the image on NED shows the little cross-shaped asterism. It's a Galaxy with a rough diameter of 40,000ly at approximately 260,000 LY distance. The catalogue doesn't provide a Morphology for the galaxy, but it appears to be a spiral with one strong arm. I hope this helps.

Helpful Respectful Concise Supportive
Bluetooth1989 avatar

Andrew Murrell · Jan 14, 2026, 12:52 PM

I used Simbad to find the object with accurate coordinates. I then looked in NED and found the object you have photographed. You can learn about it here. By Name | NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database . You can see the image on NED shows the little cross-shaped asterism. It's a Galaxy with a rough diameter of 40,000ly at approximately 260,000 LY distance. The catalogue doesn't provide a Morphology for the galaxy, but it appears to be a spiral with one strong arm. I hope this helps.

Thank you, this is indeed the same object. I’ll have to bookmark that site and use it in future. I was surprised it wasn’t listed elsewhere but thought maybe i’d had a lucky snipe. Trust nasa to steal my thunder haha.

Luka Poropat avatar

andrea tasselli · Jan 14, 2026, 10:30 AM

As Oscar H rightly said there are plenty of uncatalogued small galaxies (more so in the southern hemisphere) but that hardly makes a "discovery", as they can also be seen on SDSS, as I did in this case. Cataloguing is hard work and someone got to pay for it…

The same can be said for a number of recently reported nebula “discoveries.” In many cases, these objects were identified through post hoc analysis of existing survey datasets and subsequently assigned “new designations”. While such work may be valuable from a classificatory or organizational standpoint, it does not constitute a new discovery in a scientific sense, as the objects themselves already existed in publicly available data.

What is often being claimed is not discovery, but naming. The act of assigning a label to a previously unremarked feature does not, by itself, establish novelty. Subsequent targeted observations may improve sensitivity, resolution, or reveal additional structure sometimes dramatically extending the apparent size of the object but such follow-up constitutes refinement of morphology and characterization, not discovery. A revision of spatial extent reflects the limitations of the original survey rather than the prior nonexistence of the object.

Accordingly, many of these claims lack formal recognition. The fact that large surveys do not catalogue or explicitly label every detectable structure does not imply that those structures were previously unknown or undiscovered; it merely reflects the practical and methodological limits of survey design.

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SonnyE avatar

Yep. I remember when I “discovered” streakers on Orion.

And there seems to be no end to Nebulae showing up with new names. Mostly hard to imagine (Casper the Friendly Ghost, Pacman Nebula, ad nauseum…) humans tacking tacky Johnny-come-lately names on things.

But do keep looking up. There are grains of sand that humans have yet to discover, too.

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