ARP210

Arp 210 is one I started imaging last winter. Again clouds made getting the data difficult. I wanted some Halpha data to this one but the clouds wouldn't let it happen. I forgot about it until suddenly the Hubble site featured it in a press release. So a few nights ago I went back and got some H alpha data. I wanted two hours but only was able to get one before again clouds moved in and now the moon will be in the way when the clouds go away so decided to process what I had since Hubble already scooped me on this one.

Also known as NGC 1569, it is a dwarf galaxy about 11 million light-years distant. NED classifies it as IBm;Sbrst Sy1 meaning it is an irregular galaxy of the Magellanic type with a bar, starburst activity and a very active core reaching Seyfert 1 class. It is one of the most active, if not the most active starburst galaxy known in our region of the galaxy. M82 is the most often imaged by amateurs but NGC 1569 makes M82 look like a placid galaxy by comparison. It is much smaller and for a long time thought to be closer as well. Starburst galaxies are created when they pass by another galaxy and the tidal forces compress cold gas in the galaxy triggering massive star formation. But NGC 1569 is a lone galaxy (we thought). There's nothing around it today (we thought). Hubble discovered that instead of 7 million light years away it was really 11 million light years away. The problem is this is a heavily obscured galaxy, hidden behind the dust and gas of our galaxy. This made determining its distance difficult. Now it appears this galaxy is a member of the Maffei/IC 342 group and is likely being squished by the gravity of all the other members of the group. Other well-known members of the group are Maffei 1 and 2. All of these are located in the constellation of Camelopardalis (the giraffe). It was discovered by William Herschel on November 4, 1788. It didn't make either of the Herschel 400 observing programs.

You can read about what Hubble found at:
http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2008-38
The Hubble image is taken solely in Hydrogen Alpha light as well as some other narrow elemental bands to show all the ionized hydrogen being thrown out of the galaxy by the solar gales created by the massive stars formed in the galaxy. Thus this process is actually stripping the galaxy of its dust and gas such that it likely will not have any left in a few more hundred millions of years. At least none that is cold enough to form stars.

In my image, only the areas in which ionized hydrogen light is brighter than that of the massive stars show as pink while in the Hubble image that was basically the only light used so starlight is suppressed allowing the hydrogen to dominate the image. In astronomy, the wavelengths used to image an object can make it look very different and how they are combined can make a great difference as well.

Arp's image: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp210.jpeg

14" LX200R A f/10, Ha=2x30' L=4x10' RGB=2x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP210

ARP211

Arp 211/UGCA 290 is a dwarf galaxy in Canes Venatici. It is a possible member of the Canes Venatici (CVn) galaxy cloud. Arp put it in his atlas under Galaxies: Irregularities, Absorption and Resolution -- whatever that means. His image of it is one of the best he took with the 200" resolving it into stars. I wasn't able to do that on the night I took it. I need a night of better seeing. I only picked up the brightest one and hints of a few others. While redshift data puts it a bit over 30 million light-years out this seems way too far for such resolution. Studies with the Russian 6-meter telescope using those bright blue stars put its distance at more like 10 million light-years though a more recent study using the tip of the red branch puts it at 22 million light-years. If the former it would likely be a member of the CVn group (a subgroup of the CVn Cloud that includes M94). Most lists of the group don't include this galaxy. Still, 22 million light-years seems a bit far to me. I flipped a coin but it came down on edge.

NED indicates it is two galaxies that are merging. This doesn't appear to be the case. Just that there are condensations of new stars at the north and south ends of the galaxy. But it does have two designations in some catalogs. Also, one note at NED says: "double system, contact; disrupted." Arp's comment: "Resolution into Stars" doesn't help settle this issue. Still, the most current analysis of the galaxy using the Hubble Space Telescope considers it one dwarf galaxy. The paper is at http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/567/1/258/pdf/54424.web.pdf .

Toward the bottom center, you will see lots of faint galaxies. These are in the ZwCl 1235.0+3852 galaxy cluster. No distance is given for Zwicky clusters. NED says it has 93 members in an 18 arc minute circle.

The field is devoid of nearby galaxies. Still, I prepared an annotated version as there are some quasars and a few of the very distant galaxies did have redshift data. Note there are no galaxies anywhere near as close as Arp 211 on the image. This though is misleading. At its close distance, related galaxies can be several degrees away. In fact, while the nearest is 43.5 minutes away there are some 100 or so close enough in actual distance that NED considers them possible members of the group. If we were looking from a more distant vantage point the area would look rather crowded with galaxies. We're just too close to see the forest for the trees as they say. Still, I don't see this one as a merger candidate.

Arp's excellent image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp211.jpeg

I've included the HST image in green light which I did a quickie process of from the Hubble Legacy Archive. The northeastern part of the galaxy was out of the frame, unfortunately.

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

Related Designations for ARP211

ARP212

Arp 212 (NGC 7625) is a small galaxy only about 60 light years away. It is classed as an SA(rs)A pec spiral and by Arp as an unclassifiable galaxy with "irregularities, absorption and resolution". Today most consider it a polar ring galaxy but the ring is not illuminated as it consists mostly of dust and nonionized hydrogen gas though some HII is seen. Those interested in what all this means can go to this link for more info. http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0808/0808.1696v1.pdf

This one was taken and is displayed at 0.5" per pixel rather than my normal 1" per pixel, putting more stress on image quality. In this case, I pick up detail that Arp using the Palomar 200" telescope didn't. So I had better seeing than Palomar this night.

To make a polar ring a galaxy it is usually considered necessary to have to have encountered another galaxy. Again, none is seen in the area. But it could have happened some time ago. A dwarf galaxy far out of my field of view to the upper left (northeast) is mentioned in the PDF link above as a possible candidate but this is still somewhat uncertain. NGC 7625 was discovered by William Herschel on October 15, 1784.

This image was taken at 0.5" per pixel rather than my normal 1" per pixel. At the time this was processed I was using a 32-bit system limited to about 3 gigabytes of free memory. This wasn't sufficient to work on the entire image so I cropped it down until I could fit it into memory. I need to redo it now that I am using a 64-bit system but as there wasn't much to see in the portion I cropped out I doubt that will happen any time soon.

Arp's image: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp212.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=7x10'x1 RGB=2x10x2, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP212

ARP213

Arp 213/IC 356 is a heavily obscured galaxy seen through the dust of our own galaxy. It is found in the constellation of Camelopardalis not far from its far more famous neighbor IC 342. I do need to retake that one as I severely underexposed it. Arp 213 is a couple degrees further north and thus in my Polaris tree. I had to do some very fancy processing to return the stars to a round shape. It took nearly a week of work and pondering the situation to whip this one into submission. Probably the most difficult processing I've succeeded in turning into a usable image. Pine needles make for some very odd diffraction effects in the raw images. Blue frames were deepest in the needles so there are some real issues with the blue data on this one. Nothing I can do but cut down the tree which acts a snow fence keeping a lot of snow from the observatory roof.

Arp 213 is classed by Arp as; "Galaxies (not classifiable as S(piral) or E(lliptical: Irregularities, absorption and resolution. Often I don't know what he is referring to but in this case, it is obviously the odd dark band that forms a radial spoke. "Faint straight absorption lanes lead toward nucleus, become triple" (Arp). Near the core it splits into three parts, one goes to the east of the core, one to the center and another to the west side of the core. Is this a feature of the galaxy or a dust lane in our own galaxy? I couldn't find a definite answer to this. Redshift data puts it at about 40 million light years. The spiral galaxy below it and a bit left is UGC 2955 and it too is about 40 million light-years away. They likely are part of the same group but I see no sign of interaction between them. So if the dark radial lane is due to interaction with another galaxy, where is it?

IC 356 was discovered by Edward Barnard on August 23, 1889.

The interesting looking galaxy east (left) of UGC 2955 is 2MFCG3399 but there's no redshift data on it. It is classed as S0 rather than an edge on spiral. It appears warped to me. The only other galaxy with redshift data is the one east and a tad north of Arp 213. It is LEDA 166486 and is listed at about 220 million light years. It is classed as either elliptical or undetermined by the sources I found.

Arp's image with the 200" scope:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp213.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2X10'X3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP213

ARP214

There are two Arp systems in this image, Arp 214 and Arp 322. They are unrelated. Arp 214 is also NGC 3718. It was discovered by William Herschel on April 12, 1789 though not in either of the Herschel 400 programs which I find rather strange. Arp put it in his category for galaxies with irregularities, absorption and resolution. I don't know what he means by resolution but it certainly is irregular and has a strange absorption dust lane. These features are caused by its long-ago interaction with NGC 3729 to the east. Arp's comment on it reads: "Barred spiral, sharp nucleus, narrow absorption lanes through center." He never mentions the huge plumes drawn out by its interaction with NGC 3729 which itself is rather disturbed but didn't make Arp's atlas. It was also discovered by William Herschel on April 12, 1789 but did make the original Herschel 400 observing program. My comment on it from April 16, 1985 on a fair but humid night with my 10" f/5 at 50x reads "Small galaxy, gradually brighter toward center though no defined nucleus was seen. Smaller and fainter than NGC 3718 in the same field which is easier and more interesting."

The galaxies are a bit over 50 million light-years distant and found in Ursa Major. Both galaxies are experiencing strong star formation as a result of their interaction.

Arp 322 is the other entry to Arp's Atlas in this image. It is 4 of the 5 galaxies seen below Arp 214. It is much more distant at a bit less than 400 million light-years. The 5 galaxies constitute the Hickson Compact Group #56. The eastern member is not considered part of Arp 322. Arp put it in his section for galaxy chains. Other than mentioning that the chain is near Arp 214 he made no other comment on this entry. Did he leave out the eastern galaxy because its halo didn't overlap any other or because it didn't fit his idea of a "chain"? Without any comment on this, your guess is as good as mine.

Arp's image of #214:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp214.jpeg

Arp's image of #322:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp322.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x12' RGB=4x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP214

ARP215

ARP 215, NGC 2782, is thought to be the result of two galaxies that have almost merged. The core is still elongated and appears double at some wavelengths. The debris of the merger hasn't yet merged with the resulting galaxy but likely will. It is classed as SAB(rs)a and is a starburst galaxy. Some consider it a Seyfert 1 galaxy. Others say this is an illusion due to the massive star formation going on in its merging nuclei. The galaxy is about 125 million light-years distant and is found in southwest Lynx, north of 38 Lynx. It was discovered by William Herschel on March 18, 1878 but isn't in either Herschel 400 observing programs.

It is peculiar enough to make Arp's catalog under his class: Galaxies (not classifiable as E or S); adjacent loops. Not having today's multiple wavelength data he didn't likely know it was a merger situation. He just knew there were no galaxies in the area that could have interacted with it so its distortion was without an obvious explanation.

While the edge on spiral (SBb) to the southeast, UGC 4872, may seem to be involved it is three times as far away at 380 million light-years.

As there's quite a bit of information on the background galaxies thanks to the SDSS, I've made an annotated version showing the distance in billions of light-years to the more distant galaxies and quasars. Note the one west of Arp 215 at 3.9 billion light-years is the upper object. There's a star about 3" south. The galaxy is at magnitude 21.0 in visual (SDSS G filter) light. Limiting magnitude on the posted image is about 22.5. My data goes a bit below 23 on the Lum FITS. The image is not as deep as I'd have liked. Transparency wasn't very good these nights though seeing was fairly good.

Sometimes the SDSS data base in NED mystifies me. Below and a bit right of Arp 215 are two galaxies, one at 1.3 and the other 1.9 billion light-years. The galaxy in the middle isn't in the database. But if you look closely just to the left of it near its northern end is a very dim star, below 22nd magnitude. The SDSS puts at the location of the galaxy, noting it is a star and lists its magnitude as 20.4 which is way too bright for the star but dimmer than the anonymous galaxy. It is noted with a question mark in the annotated image. I included it to point out the more distant objects in the image.

There's one quasar identified in the image as well. Most of the galaxies with red shift data are between 1.2 and 1.4 billion light-years.

SDSS image:
http://astronomerica.awardspace.com/SDSS-18/NGC2782.php

There are a few HST frames in the archive but they need so much work to salvage and don't appear to add much to this discussion I didn't try to salvage them.

Arp's image is one of his best. Core does appear possibly double rather than just a short bar.
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp215.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L-4x10' RGB=2x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP215

ARP216

ARP 216 is a pair of galaxies in the Circlet of Pisces about 215 million light years beyond the Circlet and us. I find a lot on this pair but lots of confusion as well. I'll start with the basics first then get to the confusion. The distorted galaxy is NGC 7679 an SB0 pec galaxy some class as a Seyfert 2 and others a Seyfert 1 galaxy (OK a bit of confusion sneaks in). The other galaxy is mostly normal looking NGC 7682 classed as SB(r)ab and all agree is a Seyfert 2 galaxy. Arp classed the pair under Galaxies (not classifiable as S or E): Adjacent loops. I assume that refers to the "bright" loop to the north that may connect to the fainter one coming up from the west end. I'd need a lot more exposure time to see if the loop is complete.

At the east end of NGC 7679 is a bright clump seen against the distorted tidal arm near its edge. This is classed as a separate galaxy SRGb 037.046 and shows the same redshift. I'd dismiss it as just a bright clump that's part of NGC 7679 except a couple notes refer to it as a separate galaxy. Most say NGC 7679 and 7682 are an interacting pair. But I see little distortion in NGC 7682. It appears about the same size as NGC 7679 so I'd expect it to be as distorted but that's not the case. It does have an odd dark lane at the south end of the brighter oval that separates that from a faint outer arc. Other than that I see nothing unusual enough to indicate a major interaction with NGC 7679. Now return to that puff on the east end of NGC 7679. One paper says of it: "Dwarf satellite connected to the primary by a short thin filament, mostly normal to the surface of the latter. Primary appears to be spheroidal, not spiral." I don't see the filament referred to. But this paper and a couple others seem to indicate this little guy is the culprit and what we have here is the remains of a galaxy "eaten" by NGC 7679 rather than interaction with NGC 7682. Though most papers only cite NGC 7682 as the interacting galaxy. For now, I'm going with the minority view that this is a merger situation. Star sprays are often the result of such mergers. It could be that this low density "fluff" has been pulled into the "loop" Arp sees by NGC 7682 but that the vast majority of the distortion of NGC 7679 is due to the merger which is also converting it to a spherical or elliptical galaxy from a spiral before the merger. All speculation on my part.

I accidentally imaged this one twice but with the faintness of the plumes this turned out to be a good thing as by combining them both the faint eastern component of the loop came up enough from the noise it could be seen. Since I took it twice only by accident, first image run didn't get logged, I didn't take pains to be sure the centering was at all similar. This results in the image being somewhat cropped from my usual size. Fortunately, there was little to be seen in the cropped portions. In fact, the background is rather sparse even with twice my normal exposure. Few stars or galaxies are to be seen. It's not in Sloan's survey field so few of the background galaxies in the image are identifiable.

While there appears to be a very faint filament running between NGC 7679 and 7682 there's an even brighter plume to the west-northwest. I didn't find any mention of it. NGC 7679 and 7682 were discovered by Heinrich d'Arrest on September 23, 1864.

The other major galaxy in the image to the southeast of Arp 216 is UGC 12628. It is about 200 million light-years distant by redshift. Close enough to Arp 216 that they may be part of the same group. It is classed as SB(rs)c. Its many spiral arms seem rather chaotic some being short arcs, another rather straight and crossed by a highly curved arm.

The only other galaxy in the image with redshift data is SRGb 037.051. It is due east of NGC 7679, two-thirds of the way to the eastern edge of the image. It is nearly 700 million light years distant. Since I first wrote this quite a few galaxies without redshift have been posted to NED. I've identified a few of these. Note the blue smudge above NGC 7679 is listed as an X-ray source rather than a galaxy but that's likely due to it being recorded by an X-ray satellite.

There are two very blue galaxies that appear nearly starlike in my image to the west-southwest of NGC 7679. I've identified these but found little on them. They look quite interesting in Arp's image. Also, there's a distant galaxy seen right through the eastern stretched arm that is somewhat red in color, possibly due to dust in that arm. It too is anonymous as far as I can determine.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp216.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=8x10' RGB=4x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP216

ARP217

Arp 217/NGC 3310 is an example of a galactic merger. There are two cores separated by 2" of arc. Imaging at 1" per pixel I was unable to resolve this. A tremendous spray of stars loops and radiates from this galaxy. My 50 minutes of exposure time plus a nasty glare from a fifth magnitude star just off the top of the frame made pulling it out difficult. This galaxy is located in Ursa Major southwest of the southwest corner of the bowl of the big dipper. It is about 50 million light-years distant by redshift measurement. Other sources put it slightly further away but the differences are minor so I'll go with this nice round number.

It is a starburst galaxy, possibly on par with M82. Oddly few O stars are seen which is hard to explain. I was surprised by how much H alpha I picked up in the arms. These huge regions indicate star formation is going on not just in the core but along the arms as well. If O stars are in short supply how are these regions being ionized?

It is known as the Bow and Arrow Galaxy for the odd stream of young blue stars piercing a diffuse arc of stars that possibly traces the path of the merging galaxy. I've also seen it called the Bowstring Galaxy though that ignores the arrow so I prefer the former. It was discovered by William Herschel on April 12, 1789, but didn't make either Herschel 400 observing program.

I had to place the galaxy high to move a K3 giant star out of the field. It still sent a halo of light through the upper half of the galaxy that made processing this image very difficult. I lost some of the star streams because of it.

I found some odd things while preparing the annotated image. First, a star-like object east of Arp 217 is identified as a star cluster associated with Arp 217! It is labeled *Cl. Its redshift is the same as that of Arp 217. That's one heck of a star cluster if that is right.

Down to the southwest of Arp 217 is an object with three entries; the primary as a star, next as an X-ray source and lastly as a galaxy. But it is listed as being 10.9 billion light years distant and is classed as an AGN (Active Galactic Nuclei). That plus the X-rays would make it a possible quasar. I added a ? to its label for this reason.

In the lower right corner is the galaxy cluster GMBCG J159.31485+53.30322 anchored by the Bright Cluster Galaxy GMBCG J159.31485+53.30322 BCG. Measured redshift for the galaxy gives a distance of 4.3 billion light-years. A photographic measurement of redshift (less accurate) gives a distance to the cluster of 4.1. I just listed the 4.3 figure on the annotated image.

As is all too often the case I checked a galaxy that NED missed. It found some 3000 within 20 minutes of Arp 217, half fainter than any shown on my image. Yet, it missed a rather red galaxy in the lower left corner marked with a question mark. Usually these are low surface brightness blue galaxies but in this case, it is a pretty ordinary looking reddish elliptical-like galaxy.

This is a reshoot. The first time I tried imaging it the K3 star was in the field and made such a glare across the entire image it was easier to reshoot it than try to reprocess it. Still, that star nailed me. I doubt I'll try again. This will have to do. Even if the night's seeing was rather poor.

Arp's image: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp217.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=5x10' RGB=2x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP217

ARP218

Arp 218 is located in eastern Serpens Caput not far from the famous Hercules Galaxy Cluster. It may be a member of the Hercules supercluster as one paper I did find considers it as such but provides little else. That may help account for the rather rich field of distant galaxies in the image. Unfortunately, while it is the last of the Arps I imaged it is also the least researched of those I have taken which is the vast majority of them. For instance, there are only 6 papers listed in SIMBAD, all of which are just listings mentioning it or Arp's catalog entry. A couple papers consider it an M51 type of interacting pair but only list it as such an example. There's not even any distance estimate for it that I could find. Virtually all I could find on them is shown on the annotated image. They may be members of the same group those at 650 million light-years in the image. That's only a guess on my part.

The eastern member has an apparently tidally distorted arm that curves back on itself making the appearance of a loop though I doubt that is really the case if seen from a different angle it likely goes far behind or in front of the galaxy rather than looping back into the galaxy's core. Arp put it in his class for galaxies with "Adjacent Loops", whatever that means. He left no note on this pair so your guess is as good as mine. Part way up the loop is a bright blue star-forming region that appears almost star-like in my image. It's clearly a star knot in the Sloan image I've attached. Or so I thought. NED, however, lists it as a separate galaxy both with a Sloan ID and one from the new ASK catalog. Though it gives no size, magnitude or classification it does give a redshift! That puts it about 670 million light-years distant. That is 100 to 200 million light-years more distant than the various clusters making up the nearby Hercules Supercluster. For now, I'm saying it is part of Arp 218 and not a separate galaxy.

The western member is unclassified. It has a very bright star cluster at its northeastern end. It has a rather red core and the southwest side is very blue indicating a spiral type galaxy with the NE end highly disturbed creating a super bright star cluster. I mistook it for a star on my image but the Sloan image under far higher resolution shows it to be part of the galaxy.

The annotated image details all the galaxies for which NED had distance data. There were many I'd like to know more about but it just isn't available. South of Arp 218 is a pair of very small blue galaxies. The northern one appears to be a disk galaxy that is highly warped. Below and to the west is another very blue galaxy, an obvious spiral. It too appears distorted. Are they an interacting pair? It's unusual to see an edge on spiral that's as blue as this northeastern one is. Both are bluer than expected which could be due to "recent" star formation due to interaction.

There's a galaxy northeast of CGCG 107-053 that appears to have a very off-center core. But it is at a very different distance than all its apparent neighbors. How did it get so distorted?

UGC 10084, CGCG 107-053 and a couple others appear to be part of the same group as Arp 218. CGCG 107-053 is a neat, tightly wound spiral while the much closer UGC 10085 is a very interesting multi-arm with very irregular widely spread arms. I wish it was closer so we could get a better look at it. it is quite a contrast compared to the CGCG spiral.

Arp took his image of Arp 218 under very poor seeing conditions, even worse than mine allowing me to capture more detail than he could. Nice to out-shoot what was "The World's Largest Telescope" for most of my life. The idea it could happen was less believable to me than I'd have a computer more powerful than those taking up entire floors of climate controlled buildings in the 50's.

Arp's image http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp218.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP218

ARP219

If only we were 400 million light years closer this one would be a grand object.

NED considers Arp 219 a galaxy pair known as UGC 02812. The main distorted galaxy and the small reddish galaxy within the large tidal arc. It is classed as SB pec. Its redshift puts it at about 460 million light-years. Its tiny reddish companion has no redshift data. The "companion" also shows no sign of distortion. So which, if either, of the nearby galaxies; the "companion" PGC 200217, UGC 02814 or CGCG 391-022, latter two discussed below, caused the tidal disruption is a mystery to me.

I was totally unaware of the huge tidal loop that appeared. It didn't show in the raw images until they were calibrated, and then only in the luminosity data. I needed far more color data to show it clearly. Thus its color is very uncertain in my image. Another for next year. Of the main galaxy, MCG +00-10-009, one note at NED says; "3-4 components in contact. The far components elongated. Remarkably large arc." I should have read the note before imaging it! Arp, on the other hand, says "Faint arc and filament on N side." Apparently, he saw the start of the huge arc.

Since there is no candidate for the collision one possible answer is that this is a merger of two galaxies so the galaxy contains its "attacker". This would explain the multiple parts mentioned but not resolved in my below average seeing image. The arc of stars will likely fall back and rejoin the galaxy in a few hundred million years. The galaxy will likely be an elliptical by then. Now if we could just come back in a few hundred million years and see if I'm right.

Arp 219 is classed by Arp as: "Galaxies (not classifiable as S or E); adjacent loops." Though the main loop shows in his photo the very large faint loop I didn't realize was there is only hinted at in his photo and, in fact, goes out of the frame so it appears he wasn't aware of it either. But he didn't have the internet to help him out as I did.

The spiral NE of Arp 219 is UGC 02814, a magnitude 15 galaxy about 410 million light-years away. UGC catalog considers it paired with UGC 02812 which is Arp 219. Arp didn't include it in his photo.

There's yet another galaxy at about the same redshift as Arp 219 in the image. That is CGCG 391-022 at 470 million light-years. It is the largest reddish elliptical galaxy toward the upper right, NW, corner.

Arp's image is at: http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp219.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=5x10' RGB=2x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP219