DescriptionImages

Object name: ARP129

Designation(s): ARP129, ARP063, NGC2944, UGC05146,

Arp 129 is in Arp's category for Elliptical and elliptical-like galaxies close to and perturbing spirals. It is in the same field with Arp 63 so I'm just reusing the same image for both. Arp did the same with his image of these two as both fit within the corrector on the 200" scope he used.

While much brighter than NGC 2944 that is Arp 63 this pair didn't receive an entry in the NGC catalog. The elliptical like galaxy is on the east and is PGC 27546. Seligman classifies it as a lenticular galaxy SB0?. The spiral it is said by Arp to be perturbing is PGC 27547 which Arp classifies as SAB(rs)bc? pec. Note too that while the PGC galaxies are numbered from west to east these two are reversed for some reason. It could be that in the LEDA catalog the spiral was classed as elliptical and the elliptical as spiral. Maybe this mistake is to blame. This is only a wild guess on my part. The UGC lists both as Number 5146 in their catalog avoiding any such error. The pair is also about 310 to 320 million light-years distant by redshift though there's a slight difference with the spiral having a slightly less (nearer) redshift. Still, it does appear they are or did interact. Though the lenticular galaxy shows little distortion and the pulled out arm of the spiral could be "natural" and not due to any interaction at all with the lenticular. I doubt it but it is possible. It does appear to my eye that the spiral is closer same as redshift indicates. But how much closer is unknown.

While nearly all my full-size images (2004x1336 pixels) are displayed at 1" per pixel this one was taken half-frame at 0.5" per pixel and is displayed at that resolution even though the night didn't really support more than about my normal 1" resolution.

Arp's image: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp129.jpeg

14" LX 200R @ f/10, L=6x10'x1, RGB=2x10'x2, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME