IC0565

This field is located in western Leo about 2.5 degrees north of the ecliptic. Thus you might expect several asteroids in the image. I did. Only one 20th magnitude one showed up. The two galaxies in the image are about 280 to 290 million light-years distant. Assuming they are at about the same distance their angular separation is about 1.5 million light-years making them closer than we are to M31. The difference is likely greater though both seem somewhat disturbed.

My reason for taking this field was the flat galaxy FGC 0945 more commonly known as IC 0565. There's no issue with the FGC catalog entry but it appears only it was seen and entered into the IC catalog. Later its elliptical companion was included in some IC catalogs but not all. Also, NED has the flat galaxy cataloged as Sbc one place and on the same page says it is Scd. I found it only as Sbc except for this NED entry.

There is some question in some places as to the elliptical companion saying it may or may not be a true companion. Though most note the warped nature of the flat galaxy and say it may be due to the elliptical galaxy. When was the redshift of these two determined. Today they have very similar redshifts which would indicate they are likely interacting.

The other galaxy is hiding behind a rather bright star. It is UGC 5234. It is a rather low surface brightness galaxy making it difficult for visual observers explaining how it missed being in the IC catalog. Its arm structure is a bit odd indicating it may be partly due to interaction with some other galaxy. Was it IC 0565? I found nothing much on this galaxy.

IC 0565 was discovered by Stephane Javelle on December 16, 1893. The other two escaped his eyepiece it would seem.

In annotating this field I ran into some very odd issues with NED's database. One of the strangest concerns a rather faint edge on galaxy north of IC 0565. NED shows two entries for it at slightly different positions but well within it bright outline. One says it is magnitude 22.6 and smaller than any star disk in the Sloan image of this field but gives a distance similar to IC 565 and UGC 5234. Something that small at that magnitude can't be seen in the Sloan image thanks to the much brighter galaxy. The other entry carries no redshift, a size that fits my image and a magnitude of 17.6, also about right. Figuring some mixup I assigned the redshift to the galaxy not the invisible point source that makes no sense. Many galaxies with magnitudes easily visible in the image turned out to be much fainter. Some barely visible in the Sloan image. Others with very faint magnitudes were easily visible in both my and the Sloan image. Why the errors that could exceed 3 magnitudes I don't know. Yes, a larger galaxy of the same magnitude will appear fainter but in these cases that can't account for more than a 0.3 or so magnitude difference, not three. Knowing about the limit due to lousy transparency this night I set the cutoff for searching for things to annotate at the appropriate point but when I started finding "bright" galaxies being invisible and those supposedly at my limit "big and bright" I had to go back and lower my magnitude limit. This resulted in a lot of false entries that sucked up my time. But it also picked up many I would have missed. I hope this isn't going to be the norm for NED.

The one faint asteroid at magnitude 20 is near the western edge near the NW corner of the image. It was caught shortly after reverting back to normal motion after a period of retrograde motion as we passed it. As it was still finishing the loop it moves very slowly and at an angle to the northeast.

Due to the poor seeing and transparency, I didn't prepare a cropped image at a greater image scale than my usual 1" per pixel as even that was too much for the night.

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

Related Designations for IC0565

IC0592

IC 592 and IC 593 are the largest galaxies in a group of galaxies about 300 million light-years distant in central Sextans. IC 592 is classified as Sbc and SABc? by Seligman. I can't say I see the bar. Assuming its distance is 290 million light-years which is what its redshift says, it is about 76,000 light-years across. It was discovered by Stephane Javelle on March 21, 1893 and is #665 in his catalog. Rather typical in size for a spiral but its arm structure isn't all that typical. It has two major arms and a rather odd arm segment on the eastern side. The two main arms are full of blue star clouds. The brightest is on the far eastern edge of the arm segment and looks almost like a star in my image. Unfortunately seeing was very poor when this was taken. It was put back onto the retake immediately list but weeks of clouds forced me to work with what bad data I had. Not only that but the 7.5 magnitude K5 giant star just to the southwest cast a huge red glare over most of the image since this was taken through rather dense, high clouds. More on conditions in a bit.

IC 593 to the east was discovered the same night by Javelle and is #666 on his list. With its even stranger arm structure, I'd say was devilish to explain but considering it's number in his catalog I won't. Still, it is odd with the one arm coming off the oval ring around its core. NED classifies it as S? while Seligman says S(rs)bc?. To my eye in both my image and the Sloan image it appears to have a faint vertical bar but since no one includes it in the classification it might be an illusion. Redshift puts it also at 290 million light-years. I measure its size as 65,000 light-years. I measure its separation from IC 592 at 309.7" of arc in my image which gives a minimum separation of the two of 435,000 light-years. Close enough I'd expect to see some hints of interaction. That may explain the pulled out north arm of IC 593. Likely they are somewhat further apart with one being more distant than the other. How much more is the question.

Scattered across the image are many other, mostly dwarf galaxies at about the same distance as these two. Also, a third large member is well out of my frame to the east. There was no way I could fit it in without leaving out the other two.

In making the annotated image I ran into a lot of odd apparent errors in the positions of some galaxies. Often there real position was well outside the error bars sited at NED. An example is LEDA 1093733 to the north. The position at NED points to a star that is at the southeast end of the galaxy. Since that is what NED points to and says is accurate to 0.5" I've drawn a line to the star. But NED gives the size as matching that of the fuzzy galaxy rather than the star. Several others with no excuse such as the star, in this case, are in the image. For example, LEDA 88605's position in NED was a supposed to be accurate to 2.5" but was about 10 seconds to the north where nothing is located. Putting the coordinates into the POSS server or the Sloan server shows the error quite clearly so it isn't just my measurement which is often accurate to 0.01" for point source quasars.

As mentioned conditions were awful for this image. My system first took it to the east of the meridian then to the west until clouds totally shut me down. Out of some 30 frames taken I used the 4 best luminance images. Color frames were so bad I could only use one of each color even though at least 4 were taken for each. Red was really a problem in that the high clouds sprayed a wildly variant red gradient across each red frame. I choose parts of 3 to make a single pasted together frame. Green was so weak as to be unusable. All I could do was use it as a framework to create a pseudo green frame. Add to this that seeing was 3.5" to 4" this image came out better than I expected. Though the very bad seeing created some wonky shaped stars. Probably partly due to tube currents as I never expected to get anything this night I'd not opened the roof to cool things down and began the first luminance frame only 5 minutes after opening the roof. That always creates some tube currents distorting star shapes.

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

Related Designations for IC0592

IC0603

IC 603 is a ring galaxy in Sextans about a quarter of a billion light-years distant. It is classed as (R)SB(r)a: so is a barred spiral with two ring structures, and outer and inner ring. The outer one is very slightly blue while the inner one quite red. At about the same redshift and thus likely about the same distance is MCG-01-26-040 another galaxy with a ring like structure though that isn't mentioned in its classification system. It is listed as simply SBa. I'd say SB(r)a as the arms off the bar form a pseudo ring in my image at least. This is an area of the sky not covered by the Sloan survey so I expected to find little on the other galaxies in the field but was pleasantly surprised to find it seems rather well covered. While many of the galaxies are listed only by their positions in various catalogs some have catalog names that aren't just coordinates. Those are listed by their LEDA number or other designation when available. It was discovered by Stephane Javelle on April 10, 1893.

There are three asteroids in the image, all quite faint as this image doesn't go as deep as most and was severely hurt by poor seeing. Even after rather strong deconvolution (for me) the stars are pretty fuzzy. This is because a cold front was rolling in. The front caused other problems besides poor seeing. The temperature dropped 10°C during the exposures. This sudden rapid temperature drop of course caused the poor seeing but it also sent the ambient temperature plunging below my camera's cooling setting which was -40C The last luminance frame was unregulated. I tried many different scaling factors but never could get a clean image. It hardly mattered because the sudden drop also created a nasty tube current. The Luminance was taken last which was when the temperature plummeted. The first luminance frame had nice round stars. They were slightly wonky in the second frame and by the third had horrid tails coming off a flat bottom. The fourth frame as very severe with these tails. I'd likely not used it even if the temperature had been regulated. Note this was taken in early March and we were still getting temperatures below -40°C. What a winter. Anyway I didn't know of this problem until I went to process it months after it was taken and too late to retake the luminance. I tried pseudo luminance using the color frames plus two luminance frames but that cost even more faint detail so I went with the flat stars that leaving in the third luminance created. While the bottoms are flat the image was inverted so the flat side was the top when taken, right where the hot air went, if you can have "hot air" at below -40°C. The combination of only three frames and bad seeing really limited how faint I could go with this one and how much processing I could do to pull detail out the galaxies. Another for the reshoot list that likely will never be retaken due to so many first time objects still on the list.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=3x10', RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for IC0603

IC0614

IC 614 is a ring galaxy about 480 million light-years distant in the constellation of Sextans. At that distance, it is about 115,000 light-years in diameter. It and many more galaxies in the field are likely members of the WBL 272 galaxy cluster which is listed in NED as having 33 members and a distance of 530 million light-years. It seems to have a double population with some about 420 million light-years away and some in the 530 million light-year range with some like IC 614 scattered in between. There seems to be another cluster at 810 to 890 million light-years. They are likely members of the MZ 03849 galaxy group at 820 million light-years.

I found little on IC 614 other than it is a Seyfert 2 galaxy. It is likely that its Seyfert core and ring structure are the result of a collision or merger in the not too distant past. Unfortunately seeing was awful this night and much of the fine detail in the ring was lost. The red frames were unusable so I retook them on another night that was no better. I ended up using one from each night but the results aren't very good. Yet another for the reshoot list that likely will never happen. I was taking red last on such nights as it is supposedly less bothered by seeing. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out well for me.

The galaxy was discovered on May 3, 1893 by Stephane Javelle who is responsible for much of the IC catalog having discovered over 2000 nebula of which over 1400 are IC entries using a 30" refractor at Nice Observatory. He died at age 52 in 1917. I wonder if he was a victim of the 1917 flu epidemic that killed millions worldwide? He was an accountant before becoming an astronomer. Being a long retired CPA I have to like this guy.

Quite a few objects are identified in the annotated image but none are quasars for some reason and most are rather close with only three over 2 billion light-years distant. One asteroid is in the image to the lower right. It was virtually at the end of its retrograde motion so moved only a few seconds of arc. I'd have mistaken it for an anonymous galaxy except its position is exactly matched the predicted position and nothing is seen there in the POSS plates.

The largest galaxy in the image is CGCG 009-042, a massive elliptical at 430 million light-years. At that distance, it is over 160,000 light-years across. Its gravity may be anchoring this group to some extent.

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

Related Designations for IC0614

IC0620

IC 620 is one of a pair of interacting galaxies about 470,000 light-years distant. The Sc galaxy is located in Leo about 6 degrees east of Regulus. The pair is known as CGCG 065-055. Three starlike blobs are seen in IC 620 while one is in the companion. Of the three in IC 620 two are to the west of the core. The lower is listed by NED as a possible QSO candidate. The one to the north and the one north of the galaxy's core are listed as rejected QSOs. The one in the companion southwest of its core is brighter than the other three yet not listed at NED at all. Are they just field stars or star clouds created by the interaction between the two galaxies? I couldn't find anything more on them. The galaxy was discovered on March 31, 1892 by Stephane Javelle who described it as "very faint, very small." He made no mention of the companion. Thus only the one makes it into the Index Catalog. It is listed as Sc by NED and Sbc? by Seligman.

To the northeast of this pair is another pair. ASK 379089.0 and an apparent companion to the west with a super blue star between them. But it too is a galaxy according to NED. Unfortunately, only the eastern one has a redshift measurement. Are they all related or just three arranged by chance in this tight trio? Another unanswered question. Why is the middle one so blue? I've got lots of questions with no answers.

North of IC 620 is a strange ringed galaxy ASK 379380.0 listed as S0^- with no mention of a ring. It is listed as having an AGN and is at the same distance as many in the image. I suspect the ring structure is due to a collision and possible merger with one of the other galaxies in the group. Again, nothing on it as I couldn't find anything referencing the ring. It's very faint but real.

IC 620 is part of the WBL 279 galaxy group at 480 million light-years. NED lists only 5 members but there are many more with redshifts in that range in my image. On the eastern side of the image is the Abell 1042 galaxy cluster at 2.25 billion light-years which is listed as being 18 minutes in diameter meaning it extends well to the south and east of my frame. NED lists what appear to be sub-clusters in it with similar distances. I've labeled them in the annotated image. While I didn't find a group name at NED there appears to be another galaxy cluster or group toward the southwestern part of my image at 1.48 billion light-years. Possibly part of this group is an object NED lists as both a quasar and a galaxy. It shows some size even at my resolution and seems way too faint for a quasar at that close range. But it may be well shielded by dust in the galaxy. Also part of this group is what may be an interacting pair near the southern edge of my field. Only ASK 379100.0 has redshift data so again another unanswered question.

This was taken one of the very few good nights I've had in over a year. I used to have them as the norm, not the exception. I hope this means things are getting better. I'll find out as I process more March images.

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

Related Designations for IC0620

IC0658

IC 658 is a strange galaxy between the rear legs of Leo the lion. It is classified as E+ pec by NED and S0/a? pec by Seligman. The pec (for peculiar) designation obviously relates to the odd eastern loop. This may trace the path of some dwarf galaxy it consumed in the recent past. Ignoring the loop the galaxy is about 90,000 light-years across, including the loop it is some 190,000 light-years across, more than doubling its size. Could ASK 270454.0 be the cause of the loop? It is about the same distance by redshift but I see no stream connecting it to IC 658. I found a total blank on this loop in the literature. Such an interesting galaxy without any interest in it, it appears. It was discovered by Stephane Javelle on April 19, 1893.

There are two other large spiral galaxies that appear to be members of IC 658's local group on the right side of my image, PGC 32939 and PGC 32943, both about 100,000 light-years across. Many other much smaller galaxies at their redshift are seen across the image. They are bright dwarf galaxies.

The only other major galaxy in the frame is PGC 32969 at 690 million light-years so not likely related to the IC 658 group. In angular size, it is about the same as the other two PGC galaxies but thanks to its greater distance is somewhat larger at 120,000 light-years across. It looks like a barred spiral but NED shows it as Sb rather than SBb I expected.

There are quite a few asteroids in the frame all but 5 were lost in my rather noisy skies this night. Oddly the fifth is listed by the Minor Planet Center at magnitude 20.7 which is fainter than several others that are lost in the noise. I doubt the magnitude estimate is correct so added a question mark in the annotated image.

Because conditions were poor I took 80 minutes of luminance data rather than my usual 40 minutes. Clouds prevented me from starting when I had hoped so I didn't get a chance to double up the color data before it moved too far west and I was fighting the light dome of a town 15 miles to the southwest of me as well as getting too low for good seeing. So fainter objects have rather weak color. Conditions got worse before the moon got in the way so I went with what I had.

FoF means the distance estimate is based on the Friend of a Friend method, likely the galaxy to the upper right of the one so marked. How accurate this is I don't know. I've had no experience with this distance estimate. If the distance is followed by a "p" that means it was determined photometrically. By use of the 7 photometric filtered images by the SLOAN survey, it is possible to estimate distance. I don't trust these as much as spectroscopic redshift measurements so have noted when they are used, usually with rather distant galaxies. Those denoted only by a G aren't in any catalogs except by their position which can clutter up an image when common. So I rarely use such designations. In this image, all so marked are fainter than 20th magnitude. I've included z values for objects that the look back distance is so large to be misleading. Besides the look back distance varies every time a new Hubble constants are determined while the z values remain constant.

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

Related Designations for IC0658

IC0673

IC 673 is a huge very low surface brightness galaxy in southern Leo less than a degree east of far more well known NGC 3521. Redshift puts it 190 million light-years distant while non-redshift measurements put it 220 to 260 million light-years distant. Since the smaller redshift distance still results in a galaxy that's over 200,000 light-years across I'll go with the smaller figure. NED and others show the galaxy as (R')SAB(rs)c with HII emission. It was discovered on April 22, 1892 by Stephane Javelle. NED shows what it calls a galaxy in a faint part of an arm on the southeastern side of the galaxy. They give it the same redshift as IC 673 which leads me to think it is just part of the galaxy, likely an HII star forming region given its NELG status which stands for Narrow Emission Line Galaxy. An HII region would most likely have narrow line emission thus I put a question mark after NELG indicating I'm not convinced it is a very small dwarf galaxy.

The field is full of Emission-Line Galaxies some are Narrow Line AGN's some Broad Line AGN, others are just listed as Emission-Line galaxies. Many of the latter lie at distances with a redshift value of 0.5 and greater. At these distances, the redshift (z) value is a better distance indicator than is the look back time distance I also show. There are so many of these down past 23rd magnitude that thanks to better transparency than I've had in a long time (but a bit below average seeing) show up in the image. At first, I was annotating them all then realized there were several hundred of these in the image and if I showed them all with z values the image would be so cluttered as to be nearly unreadable. So I stopped showing those fainter than 22nd magnitude. That still made things cluttered so I dropped to 21.5 magnitude. Since I labeled from the center out the fall off comes toward the edges.

A rather strange galaxy showed up north of IC 673. It is MGC 16639 at 380 million light-years. It might be a polar ring galaxy. I'd love to know what it looks like to the HST but so far no images are in the Hubble archive for it. In case you've forgotten MGC stands for the Millennium Galaxy Catalog. Galaxies without a catalog designation were only found in catalogs that use their position for the name. Those are so long that with the z values as well which many of those needed it wasn't reasonable to include them. Things were already so cluttered I had to resort to a bent line leading to the core of a galaxy cluster as a direct line I drew made some other objects information unreadable. I was constantly moving labels and redrawing lines to make this one readable so it took me almost three times as long as normal to create.

It was a good thing it was a good transparency night as 7 asteroids down to 22nd magnitude showed in the image. Though you'd be hard pressed to find them because all were right at the end of their retrograde motion and thus virtually motionless. Some moved only a couple seconds of arc during the 40 minutes luminance data was taken. Even the brightest at magnitude 19.5 barely shows but a very short trail. A couple were so short only one line was possible as they were only two pixels long to the lines just overlapped making one broad line when I tried to do that. Only one asteroid was named and it wasn't the brightest. Though you can't say that about the person it is named for. Here's the naming citation: "(32047) Wenjiali = 2000 JW28 Wenjia Dara Li (b. 1998) was awarded second place in the 2015 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for her plant sciences team project. She attends the Plano West Senior High School, Plano, Texas, U.S.A.

This is my first May image. I hope the two others taken this night went as deep. I was beginning to give up being able to catch things below 22nd magnitude again.

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

Related Designations for IC0673

IC0696

FGC 1253 and IC 696 are a couple of the members of the WBL 334 galaxy group which is part of the much larger ZwCl 1126.3+0913 galaxy cluster. NED lists WBL 334 as consisting of 6 members though I find as many as 10 in my image. The Zwicky galaxy cluster is listed as being 73 minutes across (about 4 times the area of my field, and containing 213 members. No way that only consists of those about 300 million light-years distant as NED seems to be saying. There aren't that many galaxies total under a billion light-years in that area of the sky. I'm a bit mystified by that count. Seems every galaxy group catalog has a different name and galaxy count for the group ranging from 5 to 7. I identify 10 between 280 and 340 million light-years in the annotated image with two being somewhat questionable.

IC 696 has a somewhat red condensation along with expected blue star clusters. The slightly orange one is listed in NED as a separate galaxy. There's no direct spectroscopic measurement of its redshift so the listed redshift of 300 million light-years is only based on the other galaxies in the area. It may lie far beyond for all I know. Its color would indicate it is not a star cluster in the galaxy. IC 2850 is a rather white galaxy but on the eastern side, there's a blue object. Another elongated blue object running under the core of IC 2850. The blue object carries its own designation though NED says it is part of IC 2850. I suppose that's possible but the redshift is slightly different and it seems far too large to be a star cluster in the galaxy. I can't shake the idea this is two galaxies just starting to interact. NED however disagrees and they are the expert.

IC 2853 to the upper right has two long faint plumes or drawn out arms. The northern one turns back after going further north than the bright field star curving to the west (right). The southern arm seems straight with no bend. It would appear it has interacted with some other member of the group to create these elongated arms.

The big galaxy in the upper left corner, NGC 3705, appears so much larger mainly because it is closer. Assuming a distance of 60,000 light-years it is some 85,000 light-years across. A bit larger than average for a spiral galaxy. However, flat galaxy FGC 2857 is some 186,000 light-years across. Twice the size of NGC 3705. However face on IC 696 is 86,000 light-years across, about the same size of NGC 3705. IC 2853 with its huge plumes is the largest at a tad over 200,000 light-years.

IC 696 and IC 698 were discovered by Rudolf Spitaler on March 31, 1892. IC 2850, IC 2853, IC 2857 and IC 2867 were discovered by Max Wolf on March 27, 1906. NGC 2850 is the discovery of Édouard Stephan on March 22, 1882.

There are three asteroids that wormed their way into the image. Their details are listed in the annotated image. Two of the three have names. Asteroid Belkin was discovered by the Russian astronomer L. V. Zhuravleva in 1982. It's naming citation reads: "Anatoly Pavlovich Belkin (b. 1953) is a prominent modern Russian painter. His pictures are shown in famous Russian and Western museums and galleries." Asteroid Mitchella was discovered in Heidelberg by A. Bohrmann in 1937. Name Citation of asteroids discovered this long ago are not listed at the Minor Planet Center as they are protected by the copyright of a book, I don't have, on early asteroid names. Asteroid 2000 WZ8 was discovered in late 2000 by W. K. Y. Yeung at Desert Beaver wherever that is.

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

Related Designations for IC0696

IC0700

There's so much going on in this image its hard to know where to start. The field lies just above the hindquarters and tail of Leo the Lion. My main target was IC 700 a very strange messed up blob of a galaxy. It is so messed up it is its own Hickson Compact Group being #54 on his list which he lists as 4 separate galaxies. So Does NED, the UGC and others. I've noted the four parts in the annotated image. Is it really 4 galaxies? Most sources consider it the result of a merger in progress but can't point to what constitutes the merged galaxies as they are too far along in the merger. Was each of the four parts Hickson and others point to a separate galaxy? I doubt it. Probably it is just two, parts 2 and 3 in the annotated image. The two end blue objects likely new star clouds formed by the merger though the differing redshift of the 4th object could say it is the second galaxy or even a third. I found nothing at all definitive about it. It is still holding onto its secrets. The mess lies about 80 million light-years distant by NED's redshift values though others put it at 70 million. I prefer the larger figure. Even then this mess is small with a diameter, including plumes of only 42,000 light-years. The mess was discovered on April 28, 1892 by Stephane Javelle.

There's a second Hickson group in the image. This one really does contain separate galaxies, 4 of them. It is Hickson 53 and is at the top of the image. The 4 members of the Hickson group are identified in the annotated image as NGC 3697, 3697B, 3697C and PGC 035381 off to the east. Surprisingly ASK 626124 to the west is not included, maybe it is too faint being a low surface brightness disk galaxy unclassified as far as I could find. This group is almost 4 times as far away at about 300 million light-years. That makes NGC 3697 a very large spiral at 210,000 light-years across. It was discovered by John Herschel on February 24, 1827. It's in neither of the Herschel 400 observing programs.

There's a very small but strange galaxy toward the right edge near the center-line, ASK 959185.0 at 480 million light-years. It appears to be a sloshed galaxy with its core on the far left side of the galaxy, a hole in the middle and two nearly merging blue star clouds on the right edge of the galaxy. Rings like this with the core pushed to one edge usually are caused by a direct hit by a small dense "bullet" galaxy. I see no "bullet" anyplace in the image. Unfortunately, at this distance, I can't see enough to be sure that this is such a ring galaxy but it sure looks like one. Also, it could be what I'm seeing as a core on the left is the "bullet" and the blue objects on the right are what remains of the core now creating stars like crazy. Again information on this galaxy was nil. Another possibly sloshed galaxy is ASK 626113.0 at 340 million light-years above and a bit right of the ring galaxy. Its core is well south of the center of its disk. Again no information on it was found.

Toward the lower left corner of the image there suddenly appears a ton of faint, nearly star-like galaxies. Part of this group is anchored by the Bright Cluster Galaxy (BCG) PGC 035445 with a redshift putting it about 1.6 billion light-years distant. I measure its size at about 300,000 light-years, a very large elliptical like galaxy. It is surrounded by many other galaxies most far smaller but ASK 626061.0 is another giant at 150,000 light-years, half the size of its neighbor. This group is listed at NED as WHL J113009.1+203054 with 46 members. It, in turn, is just part of the even larger Abell 1278 galaxy cluster which NED shows as 30 minutes across. It too is about 1.65 billion light-years distant. While the center is shown in the annotated image it appears few of its members are found in the western two thirds of this image. Instead, they are mostly in that lower left corner. How far they extend beyond the image I don't know. It is listed as being morphology class III which means it has no anchoring galaxy or galaxy and little condensation That too doesn't seem to agree with its position in my image. The cluster is said to be "group 3" as to number of galaxies which translates to 130 to 190 galaxies with the magnitude range of M3 to M3+2. OK, that too needs translation. M3 is the third brightest galaxy in the group. Thus it isn't a count of the galaxies and in fact, may include galaxies, not actual members but that fall within the magnitude range and are within the same line of sight. All this makes my head spin.

Several other galaxy groups and clusters are in the image. In most cases only the BCG is seen in my image with the rest too faint. Most have the same photographic redshift (designated with a "p" in my annotated image) so while the annotation reads GC/G only one magnitude is often given since it applies to both. In one case the cluster's distance was by photographic redshift but the BCG's distance was actual spectroscopic measurement and thus both are shown. In another case, they both had photographic redshifts but they weren't in agreement so again two are shown.

Now, this might appear to be a very deep image it really isn't. The night was very bright with both airglow and ice crystals in the air. I took the image at -40C with 3% power to the cooler as the ambient temperature was also nearly -40C. That causes moisture in the air to condense out as fine crystals that suspend on a still night. They really brighten the image and create a fog that spreads light from bright stars, especially blue stars, across large areas of the image. Fortunately, there was only one such star in this image so dealing with it wasn't as difficult as it usually is. All the other bright stars were rather red and fainter. Still, this was a better night than others in January, at least up to this point.

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

Related Designations for IC0700

IC0720

IC 720 is a double galaxy in northwest Virgo about 310 million light-years by redshift. Unfortunately, it has an identity problem. All agree IC 720 is the upper galaxy, NED and others say it is both. NED says the northern galaxy is also LEDA 93112 while most others say that is the southern galaxy and the northern is PGC 36333. Other combinations can be found in various sources. I went with both being IC 720 and the southern being PGC 93112 as that seems to be the most common way of referring to these two. Note the southern galaxy is somewhat bluer than its red companion to the north and shows a hint of spiral structure to the southwest. Several other galaxies also it the distance of IC 720 can be seen, mostly the northeast of it, including the spirals IC 722 and likely IC 724 among others.

Due to overlap, I can't measure the size of the two members of IC 720, just the combined size of 100,000 light-years. Based on color I assume the lower galaxy is somewhat in front of the northern galaxy. They were discovered by Rudolf Spitaler on March 25, 1892. Spitaler also discovered IC 722 the same night but confused as to the reference star got the position wrong. He also found IC 724 but on the previous night. Again using the same wrong reference star got the position wrong. This makes me wonder if all were found the same night, just that IC 724 was found before midnight. IC 722 is a bit over 100,000 light-years in size while IC 724 is twice as big at a bit over 200,000 light-years if the redshift distance is correct. Non-redshift measurements put it closer at 230 million light-years. That would reduce its size to a more reasonable 160,000 light-years.

There are many more galaxies in the image. I wish I had a better image of LEDA 4074690 that appears to be a member of IC 720's group. It is near the center of the image. What interests me is the core is very sloshed being well east of the galaxy's center. Is this due to an interaction with some other member of the group? I don't see any obvious candidates but for possibly IC 724 which looks a bit disturbed. With LEDA 4074690 being only about 37,000 light-years in size it wouldn't have much effect on the far larger IC 724.

There's another galaxy group in the image in the lower right corner at 1.30 billion light-years. Two asteroids are also in the image. (55053) 2001 QV68 at near 20th magnitude makes a very short trail to the right and a bit up from IC 722. The short trail indicates it is near the start or end of its retrograde motion. Much brighter (39429) Annebronte in the upper left corner makes a short vertical streak showing it is right at the end of its retrograde motion. Note both trails are very uneven showing how transparency varied from good to horrid several times during the 40 minutes luminance data was taken. The naming citation for it reads: "(39429) Annebrontë = 4223 T-2
Anne Brontë (1820-1849) was the third, last and least well known of the literary sisters from northern England."

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

Related Designations for IC0720