ARP291

ARP 291 also known as UGC 05832 falls under his classification: Group Character: Wind effects. Usually, this means a double galaxy but this one appears to be alone. NED simply shows it as SB?. Arp's comment is: "Main body has cylindrical appearance." Note the very blue fuzzy. irregular, galaxy to the northeast. That is CGCG 065-090. Both it and Arp 291 have the same redshift putting them both at 72 million light years. Rather close for such small galaxies. So it is quite possible it is the cause of the "wind effects". SDSS shows the north end of it as a separate galaxy SDSS J104306.17+133051.3 with no redshift estimate. Probably it is just part of the main galaxy, though the coordinates for CGCG 065-090 are for the lower part, not the middle. Still, I think it just a single galaxy. North of these is the very odd, thin but curved, galaxy FGC 126A FGC=Flat Galaxy Catalog. It has a detached piece on its west end. That piece carries the separate designation SDSS J104256.10+133247.3. The former has a redshift distance of about 310 million light years so is a much larger galaxy than the other two. The detached piece shows no distance. In the DSS and Sloan images, it isn't detached. I don't understand what I did to "detach" it. It is detached in the raw FITS image so not due to processing. Still, Sloan did give it a separate designation and magnitude, 16.5 for the main galaxy and 18.0 for the western piece. In any case, it is safe to assume it isn't involved with Arp 291 being about 4 times more distant. Still, it is an interesting galaxy. NED doesn't try to classify it or CGCG 065-090. They do make for an interesting field.

Even more confusing is the faint blob seen in the lower "ring" of Arp 291. Follow the western (right) "arm" around to near its tip. There is a small oval blob elongated along the "arm". NED shows that as SDSS J104248.72+132710.8 and SDSS J104248.73+132710.8 ID. The former is classed as a galaxy the latter as part of a galaxy. Both in the same entry. Then things really get confusing. The magnitude is listed as 15.6 with a long diameter of over 1 minute. This matches Arp 291 not the blob in the arm though that is at the coordinates. But it gets worse, the distance is listed as 2.5 billion light years! Safe to say something is screwed up here! I suppose the blob could be a distant galaxy seen through Arp 291 but the size is obviously wrong.

More correct, it would appear, is the little orange galaxy northwest of Arp 291 halfway to the bright blue star. It is SDSS J104246.40+132811.9 at magnitude 17.8 and a distance of just over 900 million light years.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp291.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' R=2x10'x3 GB=1x10'x3 (Clouds limited color data) STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP291

ARP292

ARP 292, IC 575, or what is it like to be run over by a hoard of geostationary satellites? This one is in the geostationary satellite belt as seen from my latitude. Only by waiting for it to get low in the west could I move the belt's perspective such that it fell below the object. But that put it down in lousy seeing. Also, it meant the star colors wouldn't align well as they are displaced by the prism effect of our atmosphere. Blue moved so much during just a 10 minute frame I couldn't get it to align very well so stars have a blue fringe. Another problem of viewing through our atmosphere. A few trails can be seen above the main belt. I tried to reduce them as much as possible but couldn't eliminate them completely. I didn't try with those below Arp 292. The trails squiggle back and forth thanks to our unsteady atmosphere.

ARP 292 is a very strange spiral galaxy. It looks much like M104 seen a bit more edge on except the dust lane is skewed a bit from the plane of the disk carrying the spiral arms. At the SE end, it seems to suddenly curve down even more. I don't see this in Arp's image, just a straight tilted dust lane. The difference appears one of color. Arp's rather monochromatic blue image does resemble my blue image quite closely. When red and green are added the shape changes.

In any case, it wasn't the dust lane that interested Arp. He classes this under "Group Character: Wind effects. I'm not sure what he's seeing here. There is a large halo of stars around the main galaxy, again much like M104. Though in this case it appears slightly offset to the southeast. Maybe that's what he is referring to. I've attached my image of M104 reduced to how it would appear if at Arp 292's distance. Notice the similarity. Though its halo is more symmetrical than that of Arp 292. Compared to M104 it is much redder and the halo much bluer besides the tilted dust lane.

ARP 292 is also known as IC 575, an SA pec spiral in Sextans. Some sources consider the disk a ring. Considering the viewing angle I'm not sure that's known for sure. Its redshift puts it about 285 million light-years from us. This puts it over 9 times further away than M104. IC 575 was discovered by Stephane Javelle on March 9, 1893. He also found IC 0574 discussed below that same night.

While Arp classes it under "Group Character" those right around it are of unknown redshift so may not form a group. The galaxy down and right is MCG -01-25-057, no redshift data. The one above it is 2MASX J09543313-0650143 and the one down and to the left is PGC 1027592. No redshift data on either.

Going further away down below Arp 292 in the geostationary satellite mess is IC 0574 also at about the same distance as Arp 292 so we can say they are partners. It is classed as SA0. I find no redshift data on the other galaxies in the image. The spiral to the NE (upper left) of Arp 292 is PGC 028586. The one west and slightly north of Arp 292 with an orange core is 2MASX J09540184-0649353. Directly above 292 at the top of the frame is APMUKS(BJ) B095203.23-062758.2. The fuzzy comet-like galaxy just below the geostationary satellite trails to the SW of Arp 292 is PGC 1026068. Many other galaxies are cataloged but none carry any useful, to us, information so I'll stop here.

For those wondering where the RGB satellite trails went, all were in the background which when set to gray then vanished for the most part. A couple still can be seen if you look closely. With only 4 subframes usable I didn't have enough for both good satellite rejection and good a good noise level so settled on a good noise level and left them in without trying to clone them out.

Arp's image, upside down from my image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp292.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP292

ARP293

ARP 293 is a pair of interacting galaxies, NGC 6285 (right) and NGC 6286 in the constellation of Draco. A tidal bridge between the two is barely visible in my image. The northern galaxy is classed as S0 pec. There seems too much fragmentation and tidal plumes for me to tell what it was before the interaction. The southern galaxy is considered an edge on Sb spiral. Both appear to be LINER galaxies. Redshift puts them about 250 million light-years distant. Some sources say NGC 6286 (southern galaxy) is a forming polar ring galaxy. Certainly, it has an odd half ring tidal feature that is well out of its plane of rotation. Also, its eastern arm appears nearly severed from the core with a brightening at the very end of this lopped off arm. This may be a foreshortened bright arm arc. Arp classed it under Group Character: Wind effects. His comment about it was: "Companion NW. Diffuse arc south-following brighter galaxy." Apparently referring to the same feature some see as the start of a polar ring feature. This may also be the "wind effect" he refers to.

NGC 6285 and 6286 were discovered by Lewis Swift but at different times. NGC 6285 sometime in 1886. The exact date is not known that I could find. NGC 6286 was seen earlier on August 13, 1885.

Some catalogs consider it a triple galaxy including the very edge on UGC 10641, an Sd galaxy to the southwest. It is about 240 million light-years distant per its redshift. I see no hint of interaction with the other two, however. At a redshift that puts it 235 million light-years away is the elliptical galaxy UGC 10646 at the very top of my image. Keep in mind that orbital motions within a group of galaxies can create a range of redshifts such as we see here such that the real distance to each is not really shown by the redshift. Thus, these galaxies are all likely at virtually the same distance and form a rather nice "local group" of their own. Only two of which are so close they are interacting.

In the southwest corner (lower right) are a bunch of faint galaxies, many of which seem to align in concentric arcs around a rather bright orange galaxy. I find no redshift data on any of these but they are in the position of a galaxy cluster candidate known as NSC J165634+585212. It has a photographic redshift distance (likely based on 2MASS K band data) of 1.8 billion light-years. NED lists no size or population for it.

The barred spiral on the very eastern edge of my image is SBS 1659+589. NED has no redshift data on it but I'd expect it likely a member of the same group as Arp 293. Just beyond it out of my frame are NGC 6290 and NGC 6291 with a redshift that puts them at 235 million light-years and again, members of the same group as Arp 293.

Arp's image
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp293.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP293

ARP294

Accelerate to ramming speed!

Arp 294 is an interacting pair of galaxies about 135 million light-years distant in southern Ursa Major. It appears the upper one is about to ram into the lower though this isn't likely the case at all. The image did remind me of a much-criticized line in the B5 series when a spaceship Captain ordered: "Ramming speed!". Arp classified them under Group Character: Long filaments. I'd have classed it under Wind Effects but it isn't my catalog. While the northern galaxy, NGC 3788, does have a long filament that is typical of tidal interaction, the lower galaxy, NGC 3786, has two rather unusual filaments that look a bit "wind blown". They are likely tidally created, however. Arp did see these as his comment on the pair is simply; "Peculiar filaments." NGC 3786 is classified as (R')SAB(r)a pec and has an active nucleus that appears to be a Seyfert 1. NGC 3788 is classed as SAB(rs)ab pec. Both shine at 13th magnitude so should be visible in an 8" scope under dark skies. The filaments, however, may challenge even the largest scopes.

NGC 3786 was discovered by John Herschel on April 10, 1831 while he found NGC 3788 four years earlier on April 29, 1827.

The small galaxy just below NGC 3786 is SDSS J113939.20+315320.4 at 460 million light-years. The red vertical spindle galaxy east of NGC 3788 is SDSS J114002.67+315607.1 is about 780 million light-years distant.

The spiral galaxy about 5 minutes of arc southwest of Arp 294 is CGCG 157-007 about 400 million light-years away. It appears rather distorted with tidal debris. This interaction must have happened some time ago as there are no obvious nearby candidates for a partner. The "small" galaxy to its west is SDSS J113918.50+315121 at 1 billion light-years. Far too distant to be involved. Further west of it is the even "smaller" galaxy SDSS J113912.92+315120.5 at 1.6 billion light-years.

The galaxies and quasars I was able to find redshift data on at NED are shown on the annotated image. The most distant galaxy is 5.3 billion light-years distant shining at fainter than 21st magnitude so at about my limit on this image. Quasars range from just 2.9 to 12 billion light-years.

SDSS image:
http://astronomerica.awardspace.com/SDSS-27/NGC3786-8.php

The SDSS page makes reference to NGC 3793 as being CGCG 157-007. This is wrong. NGC 3793 is a single star east, not west of Arp 294. To find it on the SDSS image go from NGC 3786 to the bright red star then continue almost of the same line about the same distance to this rather bright star. It is directly below the vertical spindle of SDSS J114002.67+315607.1 mentioned above. NGC 3797 is also a star in my image but just out of the frame of the SDSS image. For a more complete discussion of this mix-up see the NGC project entry for NGC 3793. http://www.ngcicproject.org/dss/dss_n3700.asp I can't explain why the very red star in the Sloan image is white with a blue halo in my shot. SDSS uses three IR filters along with three visual band filters and it could be those colors are so strong they skew the color to red. Very bright stars cause blue halos in my filters but the star in question is spectral class G0 so a pretty white star in reality. It is GSC 2523:1968/HIP 56900 for those who want to look it up.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp294.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP294

ARP295

Arp 295 is another Zwicky connected pair of galaxies. The southern one is MCG -04-60-021 which is classed as Sc? pec and is a possibly LINER galaxy. The northern component is MCG -01-60-022 and classed as Sb pec. The really weird thing about it I don't see mentioned anyplace. That is its western half is brighter than the eastern. It seems to have a very sudden change of intensity running nearly vertically but slightly northeast to southwest right through the core. Very weird. The pair is located in the northeastern corner of Aquarius just across the border from Pisces.

The distance to this pair is a bit difficult to pin down. Since they are obviously connected they are at the same distance yet their redshifts denoting relative velocity as well as distance are quite different. By redshift, the southern galaxy is 284 million light-years away while the northern is 301. Most of the other "major" galaxies in the image have redshifts of about 280 to 295 million light years so it is likely this is about the correct distance to these two as well. IC 1505, the large elliptical-like galaxy to the northwest has a redshift distance of 281 million light years. About all I find on it is are several comments that it is NOT Arp 295 as some authorities apparently claim. 2MASX J23420451-0334508 the spiral above the northern component of Arp 295 is at 296 million light years.

There are three small galaxies directly west of the southern component. The faintest and furthest west is GALEX 2502913013803127866 an X-ray galaxy at 291 million light years. The middle one is APMUKS(BJ) B233906.66-035605.1 at 284 million light years and the eastern galaxy is MRK 0933, a compact galaxy at 285 million light years.

The face on spiral at the top of the image is APMUKS(BJ) B233913.30-034624.3 at 298 million light years. The apparent edge on the blue galaxy to its east (left) is APMUKS(BJ) B233934.16-034639.4 at 296 million light years. While the elliptical southwest of the face on spiral and northwest of IC 1505 is 2MASX J23412885-0331266 at 288 million light years. IC 1505 was discovered by Lewis Swift on November 12, 1891. There's no discovery data available for the other galaxies in the image.

The face on spiral nearly due west (right) of the lower component of Arp 295 is 2MASX J23411291-0337538 at 295 million light years. Not all galaxies in the image are members of the group. At the top of the image directly above the near edge on blue galaxy APMUKS(BJ) B233934.16-034639.4 is 2MASX J23420657-0328278 at 1.5 billion light years. To its east (left) just above my image but coming into it as a fuzzy halo is 2MASX J23422688-0327555 at 620 million light years.

There are 4 asteroids in the image. The faintest is closest to Arp 295 about halfway between the northern component and IC 1505. It is (186080) 2001 SO230 at magnitude 19.2. Above it and slightly left is the brightest asteroid, 220052) 2002 RY101 at 18.0. Above IC 1505 and level with the face on spiral near the top of the image is 2002 TD17 at magnitude 18.7. These last two are moving only in right ascension which is rare. The final asteroid slightly below center near the right edge. It is (136974) 1998 RO50 at magnitude 18.2. The reason the asteroids are sending a sloppy "A" in International Morris Code is that I took 6 frames but the second was lost to clouds. That created a gap in the trail but shows they were in retrograde motion moving west in the sky at the time I took the image. The "dot" is fainter than the rest of the trail as that image was partly lost to clouds as well. One advantage to not needing to guide is that you don't lose the target when clouds hit. It just picks up where you left off without me doing anything. In fact, I was probably sound asleep when it happened.

The night was very hazy with lots of gunk over the lake that I was imaging through. This created nasty halos about many stars. Seeing this when I started I set the system for 6 rather than my normal 4 luminosity and 4 rather than my normal 2 for color data but clouds wiped out one L and the last two red and first two green images. I really need to redo this one this fall under better skies.

This field is out of the Sloan survey area but I did find a shot of this group taken by the one-meter scope at the Naval Observatory in Flagstaff. Note they put the distance at 270 million light years. I don't know how this was determined.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap051008.html

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp295.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=5x10' RG=2x10'x3 B=4x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP295

ARP296

Two smashups -- 5 galaxies -- What a mess that makes. While several pairs of Arp Atlas entries are close to each other in angular measurement these two are the closest. Though they are far apart in reality.

To me, this is a case of string cheese and a massive train wreck all in one image. Arp created a lot of confusion on this pair of entries when in some places he reversed them. There's also confusion on which galaxy is IC 694. More on that later.

Arp 296 is the string cheese part of the entry. It is a pair of galaxies apparently nearly connected by a long filament that appears to be drawn out from the lower galaxy. There's a counter filament going the other direction as well that is much shorter. The lower galaxy is SDSS J112850.64+583336.7, two minutes north is PGC 035345. NED classes the lower as S: pec and the northern as SB(r)ab and notes a lot of HII emission not seen in my image. Both are about 800 million light-years away. Are they really an interacting pair? Odd how one has severe tidal tails while the other is rather normal looking though its eastern arm suddenly becomes very faint and somewhat drawn out. Though I'd think we'd see more distortion than this from an interaction. Or is the arm weak because its stars contribute to the plume apparently coming from the lower galaxy? I didn't find any help in the literature. My search wasn't all that great however so if someone out there knows of some help here let us know. Arp's comment on the pair reads: "Long straight filament almost to attachment with arm of spiral." By spiral, I assume he means PGC 035345 as NED shows both as spirals.

Much nearer at only about 150 million light years, Arp 299 is a quite spectacular train wreck in progress. I didn't realize all the outlying plumes around it or I'd have used a lot more time on this image. Maybe later this year I'll get a chance to try and add time to it. I did take a lot more data but half of it was so poor I threw it out. The double data was an accident, I didn't realize the two Arp's were in the same field and imaged it twice, once on a very poor night. But you can barely see a north going plume that is rather narrow and eventually curves a bit left. Another, fainter one is seen to its west Below there's a bright wide and short plume due south with a far fainter and far larger plume to the southwest.

The identity of the two galaxies is very confused. Some sources say NGC 3690 is the western galaxy with IC 694 being the eastern member. In fact, most of the literature I saw says this but newer literature identifies IC 694 as the small galaxy to the northwest but still in the plume of the colliding pair. I'm going with this interpretation and have so marked the annotated image. For more on this see http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-3881/118/1/162/pdf/990040.web.pdf (PDF pages 22-23, Journal pages 183-184). Note that their discussion of the plumes matches my image as to the northern plumes (fainter one west of the main one is also visible in my image) but I see a much larger plume to the southwest than they show. More data will likely settle the issue.

NGC 3690 was discovered by William Herschel on March 18, 1790, but is in neither H400 program. IC 694 was discovered by Bindon Stoney on January 27, 1852.

Is IC 694 involved with Arp 299? Arp seems to have included it. NED does class it as a starburst galaxy with an active galactic nucleus, no other classification given. Its redshift distance is nearly 190 million light years. If right that puts it about 40 million light years beyond the train wreck. While it is remotely possible this difference is entirely due to a relative motion I find that a bit difficult to accept. It may have passed nearby a billion years ago at a distance great enough to not distort it but close enough to trigger the starburst and feed its black hole. A process that could be continuing today. But I doubt it had anything to do with the train wreck that is Arp 299.

Of the colliding pair, the western one is classed as SBm? pec by NED with the eastern one classed as IBm pec. How they detect a bar in either is beyond me. They both appear to be a bunch of bright star regions scattered about with what is left of the cores well off center.

The confusion continues with a pair of galaxies in the south-east corner of the image. I note in the annotated image the southern one (rather blue) as being 0.59 billion light years distant. NED is very confusing about this pair. In the position of the northern galaxy, they show 2MASX J11300711+5826154 with no distance. The blue galaxy is 13" of arc south-southeast of this galaxy. At about the position of the southern galaxy NED shows two galaxies as VII Zw 405 NOTES01 and VII Zw 405 NOTES02 with a separation of 3". While my seeing wasn't all that good I thought I should be able to see that lower blue one as a close double. Looking at the notes at NED several different sources say VII Zw 405 is a double galaxy with the northern one being red and the southern blue with a separation of -- 13" of arc. Their own notes would seem to say the southern blue object is just one galaxy. The position NED gives for VII Zw 405 matches the blue galaxy's position. Only the southern member has a redshift measurement. So who is right here I have no idea.

Low center there's a nice tight group of galaxies with the same red shift distance of 0.56 - 0.57 billion light years that are blue. One apparent member is somewhat redder but has no redshift data. I marked it with a question mark.

Hubble image of Arp 299 (its a tad better than mine):
http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/large/heic0810as.jpg

Arp's image of Arp 296
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp296.jpeg

Arp's image of Arp 299
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp299.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP296

ARP297

Arp 297 falls under Arp's category of galaxy groups, long filaments. It is located in Bootes. Its distance is a problem I'll get to. It is made up of several NGC galaxies, NGC 5752, 53, 54 and 55. When I looked at Arp's image of it I was puzzled by his comment: "Companion on arm has long tail extending westwards." The companion I assumed to be the galaxy seen atop the spiral in his image (to the left in mine) While an arm of the spiral went behind the "companion" I couldn't see that as being called a filament and it certainly didn't go west (up in Arp's photo). Then I started to image it. First 10 minute frame came in and there was a nasty reflection off to the west of the spiral. I moved the scope as that would usually stop such reflections and tried again. But there it was and it didn't move in relation to the stars. So it must be real. I looked at the GIF version of the POSS plates and saw a hint of something. I enhanced these and yes it was there though my "reflection" was much larger. I downloaded the Sloan image which showed it clearly and now I could see the real long filament Arp was talking about. I can't see but a faint hint of it in the scanned version of his photo but sure could in my frames and the SDSS image. I moved it back where it was for the first image and took 7 more. I didn't use the moved frame as it would result in the image being rather cropped by several minutes.

As I processed this image a year later I noticed something odd. The filament goes west-northwest then fades before appearing again going due west at A higher intensity. Not only that there appears to be a faint hint of it going further east than where it meets up with the west-northwest part. Also, the color is different. This bothered me (still does). Then I started to gather redshift data and things got really strange. The spiral, NGC 5754, has a redshift of 215 million light-years. The companion's redshift puts it at 214 million light-years. So far so good. Now note the odd large blob on the arm north and a bit east of the core of NGC 5754. That carries its own catalog entry which NED labels as PoG meaning it's part of the galaxy. But its redshift is more than twice as great putting it at 439 million light-years. Oops, that doesn't compute. Note it isn't blue as the rest of the arm is but more white. The blue arm fades out before reaching it in fact. Look back at the white part of the west pointing long filament that's the same color. It points right to the blob! I have no idea if this means anything or not but it sure is interesting! I find no entry for the filament so can't provide a redshift.

Now consider the other two galaxies of the "group". NGC 5755 is the highly distorted spiral and its redshift puts it 443 million light-years away. About the same as the blob. The fourth galaxy is NGC 5753 to the northwest of 5755. It's has a similar redshift that puts it at 442 million light-years. These are virtually the same as the blob supposedly part of NGC 5754 yet at the distance of 5753 and 5755. Yet I find no papers that see any issue here. Not even a mention of the redshift differences. To me, it is a really interesting puzzle.

At the top, a bit right of center, there's a galaxy cluster marked by one enormous galaxy if NED's data is right. The cluster is MaxBCG J221.37379+38.60317 and contains 15 galaxies in an unknown area that has a photographically determined distance of 1.9 billion light years. The core galaxy SDSS J144529.70+383611.4/2MASX J14452968+3836117 has a redshift distance of 2.0 billion light-years. This is where I have a big problem. If that's correct that is one tremendous galaxy. By my measurement, the galaxy is a bit over 53" of arc across which at that distance is over a half million light-years. I had never considered a galaxy of that size possible. NED shows it at magnitude 16.8 so there's no chance of a misidentification though they show it as only 25 seconds of arc across. Still twice the size of our galaxy but not impossible. I can't see how they got that measurement, however. My image scale is 1.01" per pixel so you can make your own measurement. I have to believe something is wrong here, I just don't know what it is.

NGC 5752, NGC 5753 and NGC 5755 were discovered by Lawrence Parsons on April 1, 1878. NGC 5754 was discovered by William Herschel on May 16, 1787. It isn't in either of the H400 programs.

This is a reprocess of my old data which shows a bit more detail than the original processing did. Also, I'm running these images south up rather than my normal north at the top. Just seemed more pleasing this way.

Arp's image
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp297.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=8x10' RGB=2x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP297

ARP298

Arp 298 is a pair of interacting galaxies about 200 million light-years distant in the constellation of Pegasus just northwest of the circlet of Pisces. The northern galaxy is IC 5283. It shows a nice tidal plume off to the west-northwest. Unfortunately, due to a major blunder by an imager who will remain nameless this image was taken like they do it in the movies -- with the lights on in the observatory. I don't mean the red 10 watt ones but three 60 watt white bulbs! This increased my noise level greatly and cut my limiting magnitude from the common 22.5 to 23 by about 1.5 magnitudes. Actually, I thought this image lost when I realized what I'd done but it's amazing what GradientXTermanator can do!

My image also seems to show a faint plume to the north from IC 5283 coming off the eastern end. Unfortunately, it may be just noise due to the lights being left on. Though I do see hints of it in the Hubble image when seen at lowest resolution. IC 5283 is classed as SA(r)cd pec? by most sources I checked. A few say it may be a Seyfert 1 galaxy. It certainly is a mixed-up galaxy. If it has a core it is shifted, "sloshed?", to the eastern end and highly distorted by its encounter with its companion. So I found it rather surprising when one source claimed they are not interacting galaxies. I stopped reading at that point. Probably shouldn't have. Maybe it was a misprint.

There is definitely a spray of stars between IC 5283 and its larger companion NGC 7469. NGC 7469 is classed as (R')SAB(rs)a. While I found few papers on IC 5283, everyone and their uncle have apparently written something on NGC 7469. A search turned up an endless stream of references! It seems it is a prototypical Seyfert 1 galaxy so has been studied every which way -- though the field is out of the Sloan survey area so they haven't covered it. Its core is surrounded by a ring of massive star formation that appears rather continuous in my image except for a few brighter areas. That's an illusion due to low resolution. Hubble shows it to be made up of dozens of bright star forming regions. From this ring, there's an apparent outer ring. It is really two spiral arms that overlap making what appears to be a continuous ring. Even my lower resolution shows the ends of the arms. One paper said the star forming knots were more common on the northern side that faces IC 5283 and were a good indicator of the interaction between the two. I agree the interaction likely helped form these regions but to say that is why more are on that side just doesn't fly to my way of thinking. Galaxies rotate. Even a "new" region like these have likely made one or more trips around the galaxy in this time. This would make it mostly coincidence that we happened to catch things where more were on that side of the galaxy. Differential rotation would quickly destroy any organized pattern. It's likely these have been interacting at least a half billion years to create the plume and spray of stars we do see, plenty of time for star forming regions of NGC 7469 to be randomized. The inner ring certainly shows a rather even distribution of star forming regions.

Arp classed this pair under double galaxies with the comment: "Absorption, knot. Note apparent re-entrant spiral arm on southern galaxy." I'm not sure what he sees as the "re-entrant spiral arm." The more I look at Arp's photo as well as the Hubble image I am wondering if IC 5283, the northern one, might not be two interacting spirals itself. I didn't find any hint of this possibility in the literature, however. NGC 7469 was discovered by William Herschel on November 12, 1784 but is in neither H400 observing program. IC 5283 was found by Guillaume Bigourdan on September 4, 1891.

There are two asteroids in my image or should be according to the minor planet center. The brighter is (105526) 2000 RQ26 at magnitude 18.0. It is easily seen as a short slightly downward slanting streak NE of the bright star that's NE of Arp 298. The other is listed at magnitude 19.5 and should be visible but I show nothing in that location. It could be it was lost in the gradient from the observatory lights. The data for its orbit is a bit skimpy based only on a 34 day arc. Also, it was discovered in 2004 yet hasn't made one orbital rotation since discovery so may be far fainter than the predicted magnitude. I usually can go at least a magnitude fainter than this in the FITS image so this is a bit of a mystery. It is 2004 JR45 for those wanting to try and find it.

In preparing the annotated image I came across CXOMP J230252.1+085520 an X-ray object discovered by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Multiwavelength Project. It is classed by NED as a Seyfert 1 galaxy. The kicker is that they put its distance at just over 12 billion light years at magnitude 21.3. Quasar maybe, a galaxy that size that early in our universe's existence? That's one heck of a Seyfert AGN! I have trouble swallowing that. But it isn't the only one like this in the image. At magnitude 21.2 is another Seyfert 1 galaxy found by Chandra that is listed at 9.1 billion light years, CXOMP J230252.2+084810. Note these are the magnitude in red light rather than green I normally use. My CCD is rather insensitive in red light. There are several others including some found by ROSAT. All are marked as Seyfert 1 galaxies with redshifts that seem far beyond anything I should be able to image if they are galaxies rather than quasars. All are marked on the annotated image with G? to denote my uncertainty. To complicate things further one ROSAT object, not pinned down by Chandra, has rather vague coordinates with a large error bar for its position. In that case, I've put a question mark after the distance to indicate this is my best guess as to the object based on magnitude and location in relation to the error circle.

While the field hasn't been covered by Sloan a surprising number of objects did have redshift data. NED lists 5 galaxy clusters in the image. One had a galaxy at the exact position listed. I've shown that one on the annotated image with a GC label. I couldn't really see any sign of the others so haven't marked them.

I can't explain the lack of identified objects on the eastern half of the image. Might be I hit the very edge of the surveys. Other than that I'm out of ideas.

Hubble's great image:
http://hubblesite.org/image/2286/news_release/2008-16

Arp's image
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp298.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=1x20'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP298

ARP299

Two smashups -- 5 galaxies -- What a mess that makes. While several pairs of Arp Atlas entries are close to each other in angular measurement these two are the closest. Though they are far apart in reality.

To me, this is a case of string cheese and a massive train wreck all in one image. Arp created a lot of confusion on this pair of entries when in some places he reversed them. There's also confusion on which galaxy is IC 694. More on that later.

Arp 296 is the string cheese part of the entry. It is a pair of galaxies apparently nearly connected by a long filament that appears to be drawn out from the lower galaxy. There's a counter filament going the other direction as well that is much shorter. The lower galaxy is SDSS J112850.64+583336.7, two minutes north is PGC 035345. NED classes the lower as S: pec and the northern as SB(r)ab and notes a lot of HII emission not seen in my image. Both are about 800 million light-years away. Are they really an interacting pair? Odd how one has severe tidal tails while the other is rather normal looking though its eastern arm suddenly becomes very faint and somewhat drawn out. Though I'd think we'd see more distortion than this from an interaction. Or is the arm weak because its stars contribute to the plume apparently coming from the lower galaxy? I didn't find any help in the literature. My search wasn't all that great however so if someone out there knows of some help here let us know. Arp's comment on the pair reads: "Long straight filament almost to attachment with arm of spiral." By spiral, I assume he means PGC 035345 as NED shows both as spirals.

Much nearer at only about 150 million light years, Arp 299 is a quite spectacular train wreck in progress. I didn't realize all the outlying plumes around it or I'd have used a lot more time on this image. Maybe later this year I'll get a chance to try and add time to it. I did take a lot more data but half of it was so poor I threw it out. The double data was an accident, I didn't realize the two Arp's were in the same field and imaged it twice, once on a very poor night. But you can barely see a north going plume that is rather narrow and eventually curves a bit left. Another, fainter one is seen to its west Below there's a bright wide and short plume due south with a far fainter and far larger plume to the southwest.

The identity of the two galaxies is very confused. Some sources say NGC 3690 is the western galaxy with IC 694 being the eastern member. In fact, most of the literature I saw says this but newer literature identifies IC 694 as the small galaxy to the northwest but still in the plume of the colliding pair. I'm going with this interpretation and have so marked the annotated image. For more on this see http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-3881/118/1/162/pdf/990040.web.pdf (PDF pages 22-23, Journal pages 183-184). Note that their discussion of the plumes matches my image as to the northern plumes (fainter one west of the main one is also visible in my image) but I see a much larger plume to the southwest than they show. More data will likely settle the issue.

NGC 3690 was discovered by William Herschel on March 18, 1790, but is in neither H400 program. IC 694 was discovered by Bindon Stoney on January 27, 1852.

Is IC 694 involved with Arp 299? Arp seems to have included it. NED does class it as a starburst galaxy with an active galactic nucleus, no other classification given. Its redshift distance is nearly 190 million light years. If right that puts it about 40 million light years beyond the train wreck. While it is remotely possible this difference is entirely due to a relative motion I find that a bit difficult to accept. It may have passed nearby a billion years ago at a distance great enough to not distort it but close enough to trigger the starburst and feed its black hole. A process that could be continuing today. But I doubt it had anything to do with the train wreck that is Arp 299.

Of the colliding pair, the western one is classed as SBm? pec by NED with the eastern one classed as IBm pec. How they detect a bar in either is beyond me. They both appear to be a bunch of bright star regions scattered about with what is left of the cores well off center.

The confusion continues with a pair of galaxies in the south-east corner of the image. I note in the annotated image the southern one (rather blue) as being 0.59 billion light years distant. NED is very confusing about this pair. In the position of the northern galaxy, they show 2MASX J11300711+5826154 with no distance. The blue galaxy is 13" of arc south-southeast of this galaxy. At about the position of the southern galaxy NED shows two galaxies as VII Zw 405 NOTES01 and VII Zw 405 NOTES02 with a separation of 3". While my seeing wasn't all that good I thought I should be able to see that lower blue one as a close double. Looking at the notes at NED several different sources say VII Zw 405 is a double galaxy with the northern one being red and the southern blue with a separation of -- 13" of arc. Their own notes would seem to say the southern blue object is just one galaxy. The position NED gives for VII Zw 405 matches the blue galaxy's position. Only the southern member has a redshift measurement. So who is right here I have no idea.

Low center there's a nice tight group of galaxies with the same red shift distance of 0.56 - 0.57 billion light years that are blue. One apparent member is somewhat redder but has no redshift data. I marked it with a question mark.

Hubble image of Arp 299 (its a tad better than mine):
http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/large/heic0810as.jpg

Arp's image of Arp 296
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp296.jpeg

Arp's image of Arp 299
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp299.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP299

ARP300

ARP 300 is in his class "Group galaxies: Double galaxies. They are UGC 5028 and UGC 5029, right to left. But UGC 5028 is itself a double galaxy MRK 111 NOTES1 and MRK 111 Notes2 top to bottom. So we really have three. Or is it four? Note the thin needle "galaxy" to the lower left of UGC 5029. Oddly it isn't in the Sloan survey that I can find nor any other catalog yet quite obvious. Arp apparently mentions it in his notes when he says, "Note elongated feature pointing toward nucleus of larger spiral." Apparently, he didn't consider it a galaxy nor does anyone else. Sure looks like one to me. It likely is far in the background but without data that's only a guess.

Note there is yet another double galaxy in the area. Below UGC 5028 is a pair of very orange galaxies; VII Zw 280 NOTES04 (top) and VII Zw 280 NOTES03 (bottom). I find no redshift data on them but they too appear far in the background. Arp included them in his photo.

So how far away are the galaxies in Arp 300? The simple answer is about 180 million light-years. But this varies some by whose redshift you believe. Galaxies in a group orbit around a common center of gravity which gives them each a different redshift. When the group is small there's no good way of determining an average velocity. The dance they do can be very complicated to sort out. Individually, per NED the distances using 5 year WMAP data are: UGC 5029 181 million light-years, MRK 111 NOTES1 178 million light-years and MRK 111 NOTES2 185 million light-years. Note the cores of MRK 111 show quite different colors in my image. At first, I suspected the bottom one to be a star in our galaxy not a galaxy core but the redshift data shows that was very wrong.

There's a galaxy cluster candidate, NSC J092952+683500, in the upper left corner of my image. I see a bunch of very orange galaxies in that area. None have redshift data, however. So I don't know if they are the cluster or it is something fainter. The cluster is said to be 4 billion light years distant so if it contains some giant ellipticals they might be at least some of the orange galaxies in that area in my image.

The featureless blob of a galaxy on the right edge of my image is UGC 04998, a nearby galaxy only about 30 million light-years from us. So it is far closer than any other galaxy in the image. It is an Im galaxy.

These galaxies are located in Ursa Major not far from M81 and M82. That likely explains the galactic cirrus that appeared in the image much to my surprise. Most of it is at near background level so appears as background noise but for the ribbon running vertically through the image.

Arp's image is at:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp300.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP300