IC0749

IC 749 and 750 are a rather close pair of galaxies. IC 751 and 752 are a pair of galaxies possibly ten times further away. All are quite interesting. I'll start with the close pair.

Redshift puts them some 40 to 50 million light-years distant though other distance measurements put them 70 to 150 million light-years distant. Most sources are preferring the redshift distances. I looked at an NIC camera image of IC 749 which showed few stars. That would indicate the more distant estimates. However other sources say the stars start to resolve at magnitude 22 which would argue for the nearer distance. The galaxy is very blue so is full of young super hot stars. Most of which haven't as yet turned to red giants. This could mean there aren't many IR bright stars in the first place. One note at NED indicates these are definitely interacting. Others make no mention of interaction. Another question which is at issue. Visual light doesn't seem to show any interaction. Assuming a distance of 45 million light-years the projected separation of these two (assuming the same distance to both) would be only 26 thousand light-years. I'd expect rather strong interaction if this were true. Since none is seen I doubt they are as close as they appear. At the distance of 45 million light-years, these are rather small galaxies with both being about 27,000 light-years across. If the larger distances are assumed then IC 749 is almost 90,000 light-years across and IC 750 41,000 light-years across.

The color contrast of the two is striking. IC 750 hasn't had much star formation in billions of years judging by its mostly red color but is a very dusty galaxy indicating it could create quite a few stars under the right conditions and turn blue if it as an equivalent amount of hydrogen. Only its outer disk has a blue tinge to it. To me, it shows a lot of detail for a red spiral. Could the red color be due to dust reddening rather than stellar aging? Maybe some of both? I found nothing on its stellar spectra which would help answer this question. For now, we can just enjoy this highly contrasting pair of galaxies. This pair was discovered by Rudolf Spitaler on May 18, 1892.

IC 751 and 752 lie about 425 million light-years distant by redshift. Again we have a face on blue spiral and a somewhat red highly tilted galaxy. Both have interesting but hard to explain internal structure. IC 751 may be rather red but it has a Seyfert 2 core so is very active. IC 752 has a very weird spiral structure with one well defined arm and the other virtually invisible with lots of blue star masses. If the distance is assumed to be 425 million light-years then IC 751 is 130,000 light-years across and IC 752 just under 90,000 light-years across. That makes them a lot larger than the first pair. Note the somewhat detached arc of stars at the southern end of IC 751. It almost looks like the tidal plume of a galaxy torn apart as it was devoured by IC 751. Could one of those bright blobs be the remains of this doomed dwarf galaxy? I'd love to see both of these at HST resolution. This pair was also found by Rudolf Spitaler but nearly a month later on May 18, 1892.

Another interesting galaxy is KUG 1155+428. A nice two arm spiral with a bright knot at the end of the shorter arm. Is this a star cloud or a separate galaxy. NED offers no enlightenment. The Sloan survey apparently considers it part of the galaxy.

The annotated image shows the classifications of the major galaxies and distances to all that NED had data for. Distances in parentheses are the median value of non-redshift distance estimates at NED.

While seeing was better than average for this image I again lost a lot due to clouds. Though three of the 4 luminance subs were taken under very good skies the 4th was poor. I included it, though I doubt it helped or hurt the final image. With basically three subs my noise level is higher than normal but good seeing seems to have compensated nicely. Color data was a disaster. The color taken after the luminance was worthless. A second night and a third night and a fourth night also failed to get color data. Finally a month later I got my usual 2 color frames. Unfortunately, something went wrong, clouds apparently, and the second round of color was nearly blank! Only the brightest stars showed with nasty cloud type fog around them. Normally the cloud sensor would have shut me down so I suspect a cloud bank sat over this field but was small so didn't trip the cloud sensor. The result is I got only one usable 10 minute frame for each color and didn't know it until I went to process the image. But again, good seeing and good transparency for that first round seem to have saved the image. Many of this year's images with two 10 minute color frames were far worse in signal to noise ratio than these single 10 minute frames. I was amazed how well this turned out for only 30 minutes of color data. Maybe this is all I need on good nights? I like 2 as that allows me to remove satellite trails without cloning them out. Fortunately, no satellites made an appearance for the color frames. Two did for the luminance frames. One I left in as it is very hard to see. Where the other was removed there's only two good stacked luminance images plus the very poor one. Even that didn't seem to increase the noise level in the area of the trail when it was removed.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' (effectively only 3x10' and 1x2') RGB=1x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for IC0749

IC0849

IC 0849 is a SAB(rs)cd pec? face on spiral galaxy in central Virgo about 260 million light-years distant by redshift and 300 million by analysis of a type II super nova's light. It has a rather ragged appearance with its arms made up star clusters. At first glance the nucleus appears off center but when the faint outer arms are considered it is seen that it really is in the center. It appears to have several companions with similar redshift including IC 850 which is an edge on galaxy classed as Sd pec. Oddly no dust lane is seen in it as is usually the case with edge on spirals of its classification. Several dwarf galaxies at the same redshift can be seen in the field including LEDA 1130374 and LEDA 1133258 and the very small 2dFGRS N258Z049.

IC 0849 and 0850 were discovered by Stephane Javelle on May 10, 1893 at Nice Observatory using their 30" refractor. He discovered more IC objects than any astronomer with more than 1400 to his credit. They were #757 and #758 on his list. I measure IC 0849 at about 100,000 light-years across making it similar to our galaxy in size. IC 0850 is a bit over 75,000 light-years across. But 2dFGRS N258Z049 is only about 10,000 light-years in size.

I moved IC 849 a bit west to make room for CGCG 016-007 a narrow line AGN at almost the same redshift as IC 849. But it was larger than I expected or I didn't move as much as I thought. Whatever, I managed to cut its eastern side off. Fortunately, it is rather featureless but that made it impossible for me to get an accurate size estimate. It probably is slightly larger than IC 849.

It appears there are quite a few galaxies in the image at a distance of about 1.14 billion light-years though I found no cluster at that distance listed at NED with a center within my image frame. I didn't look beyond it, however.

I took the luminance data on a night of fair seeing and took the color data a few nights later when seeing wasn't up to doing luminance data. I often get away with that technique but in this case, a really bright asteroid Moskva photobombed the luminance data. Since it was long gone by the time I took the color data there's no color trail around it as there'd be if I'd taken all data the same night. Moskva is Russian for Moscow in case you were wondering where that name originated. The asteroid was discovered on April 20, 1914 at Simeis (Simeiz) Observatory in Crimea. It was discovered by Grigory Nikolayevich Neujmin who found 74 asteroids and 7 comets. Moskva was his 11th asteroid. His last came in 1939 Another asteroid discovered by Prasjivhta Parchomenko at the observatory in 1929 was named for him as was a lunar crater.

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

Related Designations for IC0849

IC0997

IC 997 is a pair of interacting galaxies in eastern Virgo about 330 million light-years distant. It is composed of PGC 51220 a Sc? pec spiral according to Seligman and PGC 1057935, an S? pec spiral again by Seligman. The pair was discovered by Lewis Swift on May 16, 1892. NED says identification is not certain while Seligman says it is certain. Flip a coin. It appears to me that PGC 51220 is in front of PGC 1057935 though both have the about the same redshift. Both have plumes. I measure PGC 51220 at about 120,000 light-years across and PGC 1057935 at 85,000 light-years.

To the northeast is IC 998 also found by Swift the same night as IC 997. NED doesn't try to classify it though it is an obvious spiral. Seligman says Sa? NED says its identification as IC 998 is "not at all certain." An even stronger caution than for IC 997 while Seligman says "... identification seems certain." Flip that coin yet again. It is about 325 million light-years distant by redshift though I suspect it is a member of the same local group as IC 997. I measure its size as about 85,000 light-years same as PGC 1057935. It was right at Swift's detection level it would seem as he says of it: "..."most extremely faint, small, round, very difficult". So he was seeing only the core region which isn't surprising.

The other IC galaxy in the image is IC 4401 also found by Lewis Swift but years later on September 16, 1896. NED says (now don't get ahead of me here): "The IC identification is not certain." While Seligman says: "...the description and reference to IC 997 fit perfectly, so the identification is certain." OK, you were ahead of me. In this case, however, there's another issue. Dreyer credits the discovery, not to Swift but to Howe in 1860. So why is Swift given the credit? Wish I knew. Seligman has a note to himself to discuss this history but hasn't as yet that I find. It too is a member of the IC 997 group. I measure it as the largest member at 158,000 light-years in size. A very large spiral.

The other major galaxy in the image and also a likely member of the group is MCG -01-37-002 another obvious spiral but I can't find any classification for it but didn't look very hard. It seems to have a large blue star cloud at its northeastern end. I measure its size as 105,000 light-years, about the size of our galaxy.

If you look around the annotated image you will find several dwarf galaxies also at about 330 million light-years that are likely members of the group. There's also one asteroid identified in the annotated image to the north of IC 997. Note its trail has one sort of bright spot. This shows the very poor skies I had. At magnitude 18.4 it should be big and bright with the three color trails being obvious as well. They don't even register. I was losing about 2 magnitudes to clouds this night but they varied to even worse SOME of the time. This is why the trail has varied intensities. Never coming close to what it should be. There were several other asteroids in the image that should have been seen easily. One faintly is seen in the luminance FITS but so faint I didn't try to point it out. The others didn't register at all.

Also, this field is just north of the working belt of geostationary satellites. Non-working ones are moved out 100 miles when retired and shut down usually out of fuel. They then develop slightly tilted orbits so move a bit north and south of the belt. Those satellites are quite plentiful after all these years. I had at least one, usually two in every frame but one. Plus several not related to the belt which I almost always have. Bad conditions likely hid even more of them. With too few frames for sigma rejection stacking these were a processing nightmare. I need to avoid the belt and 2 degrees either side or expect this.

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

Related Designations for IC0997

IC0999

This is an image of the 4 galaxy group USGC U613, also known as UZC-CG 213. It consists of IC 999, IC 1000, PGC 051190 and PGC 051238 but not PGC 051208. Since PGC 051208 is in a line with the two IC galaxies I assumed it was a member. But while it is at the same redshift distance it didn't make either group. Apparently, at magnitude 16.0, it was too faint. The 4 members are magnitude 14.86, 14.67, 15.5 and 15.1 respectively according to NED. IC 999 and IC 1000 were discovered by Stephane Javelle on June 23, 1892.

The group and other members of the same local group are about 260 to 270 million light-years distant by redshift. They are located in Bootes, just 1.6 degrees southeast of Arcturus. The annotated image lists all galaxies and quasars NED had redshift data on. Also included is an object noted as RCQ for Rejected Candidate Quasar. Though in another place NED shows it as an actual quasar. Also, the redshift apparently is by spectroscopic means as NED usually notes when other methods are used. Since that puts it nearly 12 billion light-years distant, if right, what else could I detect at that distance? Also, I picked up one asteroid listed by NED as being a calculated 19.7 magnitude. That appears to agree with my data though I'd put it a couple tenths of a magnitude brighter.

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

Related Designations for IC0999

IC1158

IC 1158 is a low surface brightness spiral galaxy in Serpens Caput that is about 94 million light-years distant by redshift and slightly more distant, 98, million light-years by the median of 11 Tully Fisher measurements that ranged from 63 to 144 million light-years. It is classified as SAB(r)c: though the bar is very short. It shows mostly as a slightly elongated nucleus in my image but can be clearly seen in the far higher resolution Sloan image. Being almost on the celestial equator nights of good seeing at this altitude are hard to come by this far north. It was a night of good transparency by poor seeing. It was discovered on July 17, 1890 by Lewis Swift.

Somehow this object found itself on my to-do list but I find nothing in my notes of objects on the list about it. I have no idea why I decided to take it. Note made after a quick look at the frames the next morning said "Nice spiral but screwed up background -- gradients? clouds? dawn?" The background was oddly mottled. I was about to process it out when I checked heavily stretched DSS and Sloan images. They showed it was real and mostly blue. I picked it up "better" than either for some reason. Since it shows faintly in these images when stretched and the bright areas match with mine I not only left it in but boosted it as much as I dared with my limited 40 minutes of luminance. What is causing it I don't know. The galactic latitude is only 38 degrees, rather low for IFN and IFN is usually rather white rather than blue.

Sloan has covered this area but its data is not yet in NED so I had no distance or useful data on any other galaxy in the image. Nor were there any asteroids in the frame. For those reasons, I didn't prepare an annotated image. The luminance data was taken into dawn hence my concern that it might have created the mottling. But when it showed in the color frames taken a different day and before dawn I ruled that out.

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

Related Designations for IC1158

IC1192

IC 1194 is a member of the Hercules Galaxy Cluster on its eastern edge. I missed picking it up when I imaged the heart of the cluster due to my FOV being too small. Like several other members of the cluster, including some on the western edge of this image, it has large plumes apparently due to interaction with other members of the cluster. NED classifies it as SA(s)0+ pec. While the bright region of the galaxy is pretty average in size at 60,000 light-years in diameter its plumes extend its diameter to 385,000 light-years at its assumed distance of 530 million light-years. IC 1182 on the western edge of my image has a smaller plume. Its bright diameter is much larger than IC 1194 at a bit over 100,000 light-years at its redshift distance of 470 million light-years. With the plumes (mostly to the north) its size grows to 225,000 light-years. The brightest plumes belong to Arp 172 (IC 1178 and IC 1181) in the lower right corner. At their redshift distance, the plums extend to about 285,000 light-years. At least in the case of Arp 172, we know the plumes are caused by the interaction of the two galaxies. What caused the plumes in the case of IC 1194 and IC 1182 is more difficult to determine. I found nothing in the literature to help. They may be due to a long ago merger with another galaxy. All three were discovered by Stephane Javelle on August 13, 1892.

The annotated image lists all galaxies that might be a member of the cluster by name and redshift distance. NED gives a distance of about 500 million light-years for the cluster itself, also known as Abell 2151 though the redshifts range nearly 50,000 light-years either side of this figure. This would indicate rather high velocities of the members, maybe enough that some will be kicked out of the cluster. That depends on the dark matter mass I suppose. In any case, the high dynamics make it quite likely that interactions like these would happen.

At the bottom center of the image is PGC 05170. It appears quite messed up. NED also lists a galaxy ABELL 2151[HKT95] 4028 to its southwest about where there's a condensation. Problem is its position is vague (+/- 5 seconds). That's not enough to reach the core of PGC 05170 but the condensation on its southwest side is within that error bar. NED classes this second galaxy as Sdm. It lists PGC 05170 as SdI. That would seem to indicate they could be talking about the same galaxy rather than 2. I've annotated these as two different galaxies but they may be the same one. Several times in the frame NED had two entries for obviously the same galaxy. Usually one had a large error bar that sometimes wasn't large enough to include the galaxy. I listed only the accurate designation except for this entry as it was too ambiguous to take that path.

Also, several parts of IC 1182 were indicated by NED to be c, d, and E. They were listed as part of the galaxy though appear to be separate galaxies. For part c there's a fuzzy patch just below a bright blue star-like object. The coordinates match the star-like object rather than the fuzzy blob. While my resolution is poor at the edge of the field its PSF seems to indicate it is a star rather than a galaxy. But NED says the position error is only 0.5" of arc which isn't sufficient to reach the blob running just below it. It looks to me to be a star on the Sloan image as well. I drew the line to the star-like object as it is at the indicated position. For a major field, I was surprised by all the ambiguity identifying the galaxies.

Again, due to weather, I had to throw out 6 luminance frames and 4 frames for each color. Conditions were poor for those I did use so this one doesn't go as deep as I wanted. Green was still very suspect and weak. I used some tricks to try and restore green to a proper balance. I think I was rather successful. Another for the reshoot list I suppose -- eventually.

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

Related Designations for IC1192

IC1229

IC 1230 is a pair of galaxies along with two others that appear to be in a common large halo. Only the northern galaxy has any distance data. That puts it 640 million light-years distant in very northern Hercules. The other two sharing the northern part of the halo carry rather the obtuse designations of SDSSCGB 08814.02 and .03 left to right (east to west). This is because the group of 5, these two the blue spiral and IC 1230 (the pair) is the SDSSCGB 08814 galaxy group. Only 4 are in the common halo. How many are actually part of the same physical group I can't determine. The halo is about 350,000 light-years across in my image assuming the 640 million light-year distance. The blue spiral would be 90,000 light-years across if part of the group. So its size does fit with it being a true member. But it would fit at half that size and distance as well. That doesn't help much. Still, the huge halo does seem to argue that the 4 elliptical-like galaxies are physically related and have contributed stars to the huge halo.

To the north is IC 1229. It is in Draco. In fact, the boundary line is just at the north edge of the IC 1230 galaxy group's halo. So about half my image is in Draco and half in Hercules. As with the other galaxies but for the larger member of the IC 1230 pair IC 1229 has no distance data nor does NED classify it.

Both IC 1229 and IC 1230 were found by Lewis Swift on September 18, 1890. He described 1230 as "...most extremely faint, small round, very difficult, southeastern of 2"." I can't fathom what that 2" is in reference to. The two members of IC 1230 are 8" apart not two and if he meant two minutes then IC 1229 is 3 minutes distant not 2 but 1230 is southeast of 1229. Now, where are those folks who talk to the dead when you need them to solve such mysteries?

Oddly the only galaxy to have a classification at NED was the flat galaxy FGC 2064 which is listed as Sc. No distance data, however. The annotated image lists three galaxy clusters in the image I could identify by its Bright Cluster Galaxy. Only the clusters had redshift data, never the BCG and that was photographic which can be rather fuzzy at these distances. I didn't note anything else. They had no useful data and were listed only by their coordinates in the 2MASS and SDSS. No asteroid appeared this far north.

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

Related Designations for IC1229

IC1262

IC 1262 anchors a small cluster of galaxies. I've mentioned before I sometimes get requests, this one came from Sakib Rasool, a name I'm mentioning a lot of late. Not often do these make it onto my to-do list but this one did since the cluster contains the rather wacky galaxy IC 1263 to its north. As is obvious, I have a penchant for these. Maybe it's because my ham call sign, given me at random by the FCC over 55 years ago, is WA0CKY (the third character is a zero so my dad said the FCC knew I was a wacky nothing -- he was joking, I think). This field is located in Hercules not far from M92. The cluster is anchored by the elliptical cD galaxy IC 1262. Redshift puts it at about 440 million light-years from us. Though the distance to various members varies quite a bit due to rather high orbital motions of the cluster members. The cluster goes by many names, IC 1262 group, Zwicky 8239, WBL 643 and many others. Of course, the one I was told was Zwicky 8239 which isn't recognized by NED. Fortunately, Simbad did know of it. We have created quite a tower of Babel with these many catalog names for the same object, often with slightly different positions due to which galaxies they include and exclude.

IC 1263 is classed as SBab. I'd have expected a ring designation but apparently not. A note at NED indicates it may be interacting with IC 1262. I see no sign of any distortion to IC 1262 so rather doubt this connection. Redshift puts it at 391 million light-years. A rather large difference for interacting galaxies. If they really are at about the same distance (or were), the interaction would have been very brief due to the velocity difference. Still, IC 1263 is a very interesting looking galaxy.

Cut off at the bottom of the image is IC 1264. NED classes it as E/S0. It seems to have a plume or weak spiral arm. Is that due to the small companion to its east-northeast? The two share the same UGC number, 10904 but this happens with totally unrelated galaxies all the time and is meaningless. They do have somewhat similar redshifts.

All three were discovered by Lewis Swift on June 19, 1890.

The annotated image shows the distances to all galaxies for which they are available, that's nearly all of them listed in NED. Most without distance measurements are not in NED. Most that are, are in the 2MASX IR catalog though a few are from other more obscure catalogs. Those few from somewhat major catalogs are listed by that identification. Those from the 2MASX and other lesser known ones like the Galaxy Index Number and NOAO Fundamental Plane (NFP) that use only location as the designation are shown by redshift look back distance only.

As usual, some blue galaxies are totally omitted. I marked the brightest with a question mark. Really blue galaxies often meet this fate. I still don't know why. Several others are very obvious in the image. I can understand they often don't have strong enough IR emissions to make the 2MASX which constitutes the majority of identified galaxies but I'd think some of the other catalogs would pick them up. They must not meet their entrance requirements.

All measured galaxies seem to be members of the NGC 1262 group. Many of the rest likely are as well. Some though are likely far more distant. The distant ones are likely the most reddened ones but that can be deceiving.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for IC1262

IC1279

IC 1279/2MFGC 14240 is an Sb spiral in Hercules about 280 to 290 million light-years distant. The first estimate is based on a mean Tully-Fisher measurement and the latter on cosmological redshift. Quite good agreement. Assuming the 280 million light-year distance it is a huge spiral galaxy some 195,000 light-years across. It is also considered a flat galaxy but not flat enough for the FGC. Instead it is in the 2 Micron catalog of flat galaxies as 2MFGC 14240. This is what put it on my "To-Do" list. It doesn't have much if any central bulge and its disk appears slightly warped to me. With no known companions this may be due to galaxies it ate to get so large. While there are many other galaxies in the field, some of which may be small members of its group only one other galaxy has a redshift value and that puts it far beyond this galaxy. Thus there's no way to know if this is a lonely giant galaxy or not. It was discovered on October 18m, 1887 by Lewis Swift.

The other IC galaxy in the image is the galaxy pair to the east of IC 1279 which is IC 1281. Only the northern galaxy has a redshift value that I could find which puts it some 600 million light-years from us. NED considers IC 1281 to be a galaxy pair with the somewhat fainter and smaller galaxy just to the south as the other member. Seligman and SIMBAD however limits IC 1281 to only the northern galaxy. I have no idea who is correct here. Without redshift I can't say if they are truly a pair or not. The northern galaxy was discovered by Lewis Swift on May 28, 1889. Some sources such as the second IC say IC 1281 is just a duplicate for IC 1279. This apparently is an erroneous comment.

There are several interesting looking galaxies in the field but neither NED nor SIMBAD has any useful information on them. I did crop the 0.8" per pixel cropped image to pick up the more interesting ones. The spiral to the upper left is listed in both the IRAS catalog as a bright IR galaxy and in the GALEX catalog of Ultra violet sources. So maybe a starburst galaxy but that is only a surmise on my part. The pair of red galaxies at the bottom of the cropped image are both from the 2MASS IR catalog and no other. There's no way to know if they are a true pair or just line of sight galaxies unfortunately. Without any information for all the other galaxies in the image but for their coordinates, not even a magnitude for most of them, I didn't prepare an annotated image.

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

Related Designations for IC1279

IC1291

IC 1291 is a rather disturbed looking spiral galaxy in southern Draco just north of Lyra. It is classified SB(s)dm? according to NED and SBdm pec by Seligman. Redshift puts it a bit over 80 million light-years distant while a single Tully-Fisher measurement says about 100 million light-years. One paper mentioning it says 85 million light-years though doesn't say how this was determined. Assuming the 85 million light-year figure it is about 52,000 light-years across. It's spiral arms are very different both in visual light and at radio frequencies tracing the non-ionized Hydrogen. Is it naturally this way or the product of an interaction? I found nothing on this but will vote that it has been disturbed by an interaction or something it ate. It was discovered by Lewis Swift on June 5, 1891.

The only other galaxy in the frame with redshift data is the ragged looking one to the north, MCG +08-34-005. It's redshift puts it at 89 million light-years so may be a true companion. Look closely and you'll see it has a very faint extension to the east southeast and a shorter one on the other side running to an orange star. Including these possible tidal features it is some 36,000 light-years long. Using only the obvious bright region it is only 13,000 by 3,000 light-years in size. Include the plumes and it would make the Flat Galaxy's 7:1 ratio test. But it's not in that catalog. NED makes no attempt to classify it. Could it be the cause of IC 1291's odd shape? Seems quite possible to me but then galaxies can just look strange for no known reason.

NED lists IC 1291 as UGC 11283 and MGC +08-34-005 as UGC 11283c. So I naively assumed there must be a UGC 11283a and UGC 11283b but NED says neither are in its data base. Yet A note at NED from the UGC at NED for IC 1291 indicates it is part of a trio of galaxies. One is the MGC galaxy and the other 2MASX J18332904+4917066 the small galaxy about due west 3.8 minutes of arc. NED has no redshift data for it. To me it is likely a very distant background galaxy but then looks can be deceiving.

6.1 minutes south is LEDA 2335645. To me it is a more likely companion than the other. Though it too looks more distant to me. Still it makes a better companion to my eye. Maybe the UGC has a 6 minute cut off and it is just over that? I have no idea. In any case neither of these appear to be UGC 11283 a or b. Closer but fainter is 2MASX J18341025+4919028 to the northeast at only 3.7 minutes, closer than any of these. Neither of these made the UGC so that may be why they weren't considered companions.

With only the two galaxies having redshift data and no asteroids present I didn't bother to make an annotated image. In doing the asteroid search at the Minor Planet Center I note that their asteroid count is now just over 1 million. It had been stuck at the mid 800,000 level for some time. While some of those are "lost" that's still a major milestone for finding these little guys. Many millions to go I suspect.

I found one HST image taken in red light (606nm filter) which I've included.

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

Related Designations for IC1291