NGC 4402 in the heart of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster is another spiral with its dust and gas being stripped by ram pressure due to its high velocity through the cluster's intergalactic medium. Like NGC 4522, the gas and dust are being blown upward -- actually left behind as the denser parts of the galaxy are little phased by the ram pressure). It may account for its curved dust lane as well. Even in my image the "lifting" of the dust in the dust lane due to ram pressure seems rather obvious having a 3D appearance. I didn't do any special processing, it just came out that way with my ordinary processing. The Hubble image and story about this is at http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0911c/ .

Since this galaxy is located near Arp 120 (NGC 4435 and 4438) I framed it to include them. There seems to be some question if the two are interacting or not. One school says the relative speeds are so high they wouldn't be close enough for long enough to account for NGC 4438's tidal plumes. That school feels the plumes are due to ingesting a galaxy in the past. Though there's no sign of the remains of this galaxy.

The image contains many dwarf members of the Virgo cluster. The N in some of their classification means they are "nucleated", that is, have an obvious nucleus.

While I've included redshifts they are quite unreliable for this cluster. The members have high relative velocities making redshift a poor distance indicator. Some members have a blue shift others have such a low redshift the conversion to a distance is meaningless. I've included non-redshift estimates when available in parentheses. VCC entries are from the Virgo Cluster Catalog.

The other galaxies in the field make this one considerably more photogenic than was NGC 4522. To me, it's the idea that ram pressure can tear dust and gas right out a galaxy against its great gravity well that makes these "photogenic".

Edit: I need to add that NGC 4402 was discovered by Arthus von Auwers on March 5, 1862 or so many sources say. Others say he was just publicizing Stoney's discovery though the date is correct. Since it is easily seen in my 6" f/4 scope how was it missed all those years? Stoney was at Lord Rosse's observatory but used a 6.2" scope to find the galaxy.

NGC 4435 and NGC 4438 were discovered by William Herschel on April 8, 1784. Both are in the original H400 program. My only comment on it from April 20, 1985 with my 10" f/5 at 50x due to humidity limiting issues reads, "Forms a tight double with NGC 4438. Six other galaxies are seen in the same one-degree field of view." Nothing on the galaxy itself! My entry at the same time for NGC 4438 reads, "Large, highly elongated galaxy with a very irregular halo that stretches nearly to NGC 4435. M-084, M-086 NGC 4402, NGC 4413, NGC 4425 and NGC 4435 are all in the same field of view." Apparently, I was more taken by the field than the galaxy.

IC 3355 is a very blue irregular Magellanic class galaxy. Apparently, interaction with others in the area has triggered the formation of a lot of young blue stars. Arnold Schwassmann discovered it on November 17, 1900.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10' STL=11000XM, Paramount ME