Arp 134 is a galaxy very familiar to amateur astronomers being it is one of the biggest and brightest galaxies in the sky and looks perfectly normal to the eye and in most photos. I'm talking about the giant elliptical galaxy M49. So why would a perfectly normal elliptical make the list? Seems it is eating its companion UGC 07636. It is in Arp's classification as "Elliptical or elliptical-like galaxies; with nearby fragments", Arp had no comment on this one. UGC 07636 is the "fragment." Apparently, he thought it part of M49 rather than an appetizer as he didn't give it an identification and most Arp lists don't include it as part of Arp 134 even though it is. In my shot, it is the blue splat like feature on the "front" of M49. Looks to me like where a blue phaser is hitting the Enterprise's shields and the energy is being spread across the shields. Notice the blue stars ripped from the galaxy spreading into M 49 or at least appearing to do so. In a black and white photo like you normally see this contrast is lost. M49 was first recorded by Charles Messier on February 19, 1771.

There are a lot of other NGC galaxies in the image. Considering we are looking at the heart of the Virgo Cluster this isn't surprising. NGC 4464 (E3) is at the top of the image a bit right of center. It was discovered by William Herschel on December 28, 1785. NGC 4465 (Sc) is much nearer Arp 134 on the very edge of its halo at 2 o'clock, just under a small blue star. It is rather small with little detail as it is 5 or 6 times farther away at 351 million light years and thus not a member of the Virgo cluster. It was discovered by Guillaume Bigourdan on March 31, 1886. NGC 4467 (E2) is even closer to Arp 134 and thus within the fainter outer halo at the 3 o'clock position just left of a rather bright blue star. It was discovered by Otto Struve on April 28, 1851. NGC 4471 is often equated with. At the very bottom of my image barely left of NGC 4471 is often considered the same as PGC 41185. This is highly unlikely. Its discoverer was Julius Schmidt on July 29, 1861. His scope was most likely incapable of seeing this galaxy. His position is halfway between the two stars below and a bit left of the galaxy. They are bright enough for him to have seen them both. Which he considered the galaxy is unknown but it is most likely safe to say NGC 4471 is just a star. See the annotated image. NGC 4470 (Sa?) is another confusing entry. It was discovered by William Herschel on January 23, 1784. He measured its position in relation to a Messier galaxy but used the wrong one so got the position quite wrong. This led to it being entered into the NGC as NGC 4610. Later on December 28, 1785 he found it again getting the position correct. That resulted in the NGC 4470 entry.

Notice how all these members of the cluster are far smaller than M49. That's because M49 is a giant among galaxies and one of the anchor galaxies whose gravity holds the cluster together (along with the dark matter of course). One other NGC galaxy is trying to get into the image. You see the western side of its halo at the far left. Normally it is a star on the edge of my CCD that is making a glaring entrance to the image. Here we just see the outer halo of NGC 4492, most of which is out of the frame. So this time the "glare" is real not just a reflection. It too was discovered by William Herschel on December 28, 1785. None of the three William Herschel found are in either observing program.

The spiral galaxy in the lower right corner is PGC 41107/CGCG 042-125 Sb(r) It isn't a cluster member being at 350 million light years and thus likely in a group with NGC 4465 mentioned earlier. Nearer to Arp 134 almost on a line to its core from CGCG 042-125 is the weirdly named VIII Zw 189 (E0) and it is a member of the cluster.

Arp's 200" photo of this galaxy is at:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/frames.html
It has south up rather than north up as for my photo. UGC 7636 is at the upper right in his blue light image of the system. Since the halo is rather lacking in blue light it barely shows in his image but UGC 7636 being very blue shows strongly. A color CCD image gives a more natural look at the situation than does a film image taken in one color.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=6x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME