NGC0153

NGC 151/153 is a disturbed looking spiral in western Cetus about 160 million light-years from our galaxy by redshift while non-redshift measurements put it 150 million light-years distant, a very good agreement. Using the latter distance I get a size, including the drawn-out arm of about 140,000 light-years. While I call the arm on the left a drawn out arm it ends about 97" of arc from the center of the core but the right-hand edge ends at 98" of arc from the core. So the two sides are pretty equal, just that the eastern side is made up of this one arm and a lot of space with few stars while the western side has lots of stars in several arms and arcs giving the impression it extends further east than west when they are quite equal. The illusion was so strong I had to measure it again just to be sure I didn't make a mistake. Still, the two sides are very different and that begs for a reason.

Arp had a classification for spirals with high surface brightness companions on an arm. The arm usually appeared drawn out in these galaxies. Oddly many times the companion was only due to line of sight with the companion often much more distant. Sometimes it was a true companion and in others, no redshift data was available leaving the issue unanswered. This time we do have a redshift measurement that puts it slightly further away at 210 million light-years. The this leaves the issue a bit ambiguous in that they could be at about the same distance with the companion moving away from NGC 151/153 at a high speed. While possibly the situation is due a high speed encounter with a galaxy this small, it wouldn't likely create this much distortion so I have to consider these two as line of sight galaxies until further evidence comes in. Why Arp didn't include this one I don't know. It is a better example than some he did include.

There's nothing else in the field that would be a likely candidate for the odd asymmetry of the galaxy. I didn't check very far outside the field, however.

The galaxy was discovered first by William Herschel on November 28, 1785 with Dreyer recording that as NGC 151. On August 9, 1886, over 100 years later, Lewis Swift found it but got the RA wrong by about 15 to 20 minutes of RA. In fact, Swift recorded four "new" objects that night all with a similar time error. Turns out only one was really new the other three were already in the NGC. Dreyer caught two of these but missed this galaxy giving it the NGC 153 entry it carries as well as the 151 it earned over a century earlier. It is in the second Herschel 400 Observing Program but my notes from that vanished when I moved to Minnesota.

The nights I took this were very poor for transparency and not all that great for seeing. Due to the poor transparency, I planned a total retake but after the luminance was taken conditions went from poor to worse and the second round of color had to be rejected. Color balance is a bit questionable due to constantly changing transparency. I hope it is about right at least.

This is a reshoot of a poor seeing attempt in 2013. Not because I meant to but because I forgot NGC 153 was also NGC 151 and thought I was taking something different. Luckily it turned out better than the original so the time wasn't totally wasted.

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

Related Designations for NGC0153

NGC0157

NGC 157 a spiral galaxy that's at a rather low declination for good imaging up here in the "far" north. Thus it isn't a very clear image. It will have to do for now. This galaxy is not part of a group. So that one unusual thing about it. Most galaxies are located on groups which are located in clusters which are located in superclusters etc. This one isn't one of those. Also, it appears to not have its quota of dark matter. Its rotation curve suddenly drops off. In a system with most of the mass at the center, such as our solar system, the objects farther from the core orbit more slowly than those nearer the core. Galaxies don't do this. Instead, they usually show a rather constant speed of the stars no matter where they are in the galaxy. Only in the very core does the expected speed seem to apply. Once out of the very center of the core the speed a star moves while orbit the galaxy is about constant. Since this defied both Newtonian and Einsteinian gravity it was a problem. Then it was discovered galaxies are embedded in a huge cloud of dark matter. Once this was taken into account the rotation curves of galaxies made sense. But this one turns more like Newtonian gravity would predict. Thus it has very little dark matter. Why? No one knows.

The galaxy contains a lot of star-forming regions but seeing was too poor the night I took this to bring them out. I'll have to try again if I ever get the needed seeing. Unlikely however as the time of the year it is best positioned is when warm and cold air is meeting in the fall to winter transition making for lousy seeing most nights.

The galaxy is located in Cetus. I can't find a good distance estimate but since it is a lone galaxy its redshift distance of about 60 million light years may be fairly accurate.

The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on December 12, 1783. It is in the original Herschel 400 observing program. My entry for September 19, 1985 using my 10" f/5 at 180 power on a fair but humid night reads: "Large, irregularly oval patch of galactic light. No nucleus was seen!! Bright field stars either side with a hint of a faint pair on top of it. Seen when low on a hazy horizon."

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

Related Designations for NGC0157

NGC0185

NGC 185 is a dwarf E3 galaxy that is likely gravitationally bound to NGC 147, another dwarf galaxy. Both are considered satellite galaxies of M 31. NGC 185 is a bit closer to us than M31, probably about 2.3 million light-years. It is a LINER and Seyfert 2 galaxy with dust clouds near the core. All this indicates the core has been the scene of recent star formation. This is born out by the core's rather blue color. Normally the core of a galaxy is made up of old population II stars which due to age are usually quite red. Due to lack of star formation for billions of years only red stars remain. NGC 185 is an obvious exception to this general rule with a core that contains new, massive, short-lived population I stars. It was discovered by William Herschel on November 30, 1787. It is is the original Herschel 400 observing program. My notes from July 11, 1985 on a good but with rising third quarter moon reads: "Large, oval, puff of a galaxy that is larger than indicated. Seems more 4' by 5' to me. Easier than indicated even with a third-quarter moon rising in the east. Nearby NGC 147 was more of a challenge!"

I managed to image this one on a night of better than average seeing. It was one taken automatically. I set it up when seeing wasn't all that great so stayed at my usual 1" per pixel resolution. It could have been done at 0.5" for more resolution than seen here. One penalty for imaging while sleeping. Still, I was able to resolve many of the new star clusters in its core and many of the stars throughout the galaxy. I found an image of the core region taken with one of the Isaac Newton group's telescopes on La Palma in the Canary Islands. Which one I don't know but since they range in size from 1 to 4.5 meters and have superb seeing I thought my image compares quite favorably. I don't see the core as blue as they do but then I don't see the rest in the odd greenish yellow color they do either. Their image was taken using photometric BVR photometric filters rather than those designed for the color response of our eyes. This may account for the color difference.

NED, while identifying a few galaxies in the field has no redshift data on any but two that appear to be the same object with different distances and magnitude estimates. Both are within the error circle for the other which has 6 times the area of their normal error circle. This makes identification impossible as I see only near noise level smudges within that circle. NED shows a quasar without red shift distance which is very rare. In fact, I don't think I've seen that before. The error circle is huge, 5" of arc. Only stars in that circle are either too bright by far or a magnitude too faint by my measurement. No filter is given for the magnitude estimate, however.

Isaac Newton Group image:
http://spider.seds.org/spider/LG/Pics/n0185hi.jpg

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

Related Designations for NGC0185

NGC0192

Hickson 7 consists of the 4 NGC galaxies; NGC 192, 196, 197, 201. They are the 4 largest of a group of galaxies about 180 million light years away in the northwest corner of the constellation of Cetus. Westernmost NGC 192 is classed as (R')SB(r)a?. Its inner arms coming off the bar form a nice ring. Two very thin arms come off this ringlike structure. Is this a result of interaction with one or more others in the group sometime in the past? To the east is NGC 196, it is classed as SB0 pec? Like NGC 192 it is a rather red galaxy with few blue stars except in the outskirts. Below it is NGC 197. It also is classed as SB0^0 pec. But it is very blue and has a couple blue arc on its southwest side. Furthest east is NGC 201 which seems to me a very good candidate for Arp's "split arm" category. After the split the upper arc is very blue compared to the lower one. It is classed as SAB(r)c. Other than the split arm it is the only mostly ordinary galaxy in the group.

NGC 192, NGC 196 and NGC 202 were discovered by William Herschel on December 28, 1790. NGC 197 was discovered by Albert Marth on October 16, 1863.

As usual with well surveyed fields I've provided an annotated image. Galaxies identified by catalog entry that are members of the group and thus about 180 million light years away, are just dwarfs compared the the 4 major galaxies in the image. Those not members of the group are shown by their distance in billions of light years. The group member northwest of NGC 196 appears to have a faint plume through it. Probably comes from IC 196 but possibly those are its stars in the plume.

NED lists over 6 galaxy clusters as being in the image. Most I failed to identify. But notice the red galaxy near the bottom a bit right of center at 3.2 billion light years. It anchors the galaxy cluster SDSS CE J009.833157+00.701518. It can be seen as very faint fuzzies around the far larger core galaxy. Many clusters have a huge elliptical at their core. This one seems far larger in comparison to the other members however. A similar giant elliptical anchoring a cluster is near the left edge below center. Both are marked with a G/GC label. Though I see no obvious members for this second one. The only other galaxy cluster I could find is only 1.1 billion light years distant. It is near the left edge below center and identified with a GC label. In the lower left corner you'll find an object labeled UvES which is an Ultraviolet Excess Source, most likely a quasar considering its distance of 9.6 billion light years. To the NW is a small galaxy above the asteroid (22920) Kaitduncan. While it is reasonably bright it is another not in in the SDSS catalog or any other than the an entry in the Automated Plate Measurement United Kingdom Schmidt catalog of anonymous galaxies. How this happens is still a mystery to me. Usually, as in this case they are rather blue in color. I have no idea if that is coincidence or enters into the omission.

The faintest galaxy in the image that is labeled is the lower of two at 5.6 billion light years toward the lower right corner. It is 22.5. The upper one is listed at 22.2. The galaxy at the bottom just right of center at 6.6 billion light years is brighter, 21.5 but it is quite noticeably elongated spreading that light out making it harder to see. It must be huge to show an angular size at that distance.

There are 6 asteroids in the image. One, while barely visible on the luminance FITS stack was nearly lost when I stretched NGC 196 so it's full extent was visible. Using the clearer FITS data I've marked its location anyway. Of more interest are the two asteroids toward right center. Their trails virtually overlap. I never had that before. The asteroids and their magnitudes are:

(4126) Mashu 17.4
(27737) 1990 SA8 19.0
(13310) 1998 RX63 19.2
(22920) Kaitduncan 19.8
(62427) 2000 SH187 19.9
(48204) 2001 KG8 19.9

Mashu was bright enough its color channels barely show up. I've included them so the trail I show on the annotated image extends beyond the obvious luminance trail though you may need to enlarge the image to see it. Mashu's name is explained: "Named for one of the lakes in Akan National Park, which is located in eastern Hokkaido, a one-hour drive from Kitami and Kushiro. The caldera lake is 20 km in circumference, covers an area of 19.6 square km and has a maximum depth of 212 m. No rivers flow into or out of the lake, which is one of the most transparent in the world, although its surface is almost always shrouded in fog."

The other named asteroid Kaitduncan is named for another high finisher in the Intel science contest. Her asteroid's citation reads: "Kaitlin Duncan (b. 1989) is a finalist in the 2007 Intel Science Talent Search (STS), a science competition for high school seniors, for her behavioral and social sciences project. She attends the Plainedge High School, North Massapequa, New York."

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

Related Designations for NGC0192

NGC0206

NGC 206 is a large star cloud in M31 much like the much smaller M24 in our galaxy. Some time ago I did a high resolution image of C179, a much smaller star cluster with nebulosity. I got a lot of comments asking why I went with something no one had heard of when NGC 206 was there. The obvious answer is I prefer imaging what hasn't been a popular target for imagers and "everyone" does NGC 206. But then I was asked to do one for a possible publication so put it on the list. A year went by before seeing was decent enough. By then I was likely too late for the project that put it on the list. 2012 was a lousy year for imaging. I'd get one night where seeing was good for 10 minutes but not the 20 I want as a minimum for 0.5" reproduction. Over 5 months (August through December) I managed 8 10 minute frames with sufficient resolution for the luminance data. Color was another problem as transparency was hit and miss playing havoc with all my color data for 2012 and so far in 2013. I wanted 0.5" color data as well but that does need 40 minute subs for decent use and seeing for even 20 wasn't happening. I gave up and finally got 2 10 minute frames of each color under rather similar transparency. This image is the result of those 5 months of work on one object. While transparency wasn't as good as it was for C179 that cluster is visible to the upper left of NGG 206. It is bathed in H alpha pink.

Also note there are several distant galaxies visible through the disk of M31. The most obvious below NGC 206 and very slightly to the right. Other fuzz balls can be seen in the image that are also likely galaxies as they are not listed among the star clusters of M31. Nor does NED pick them up at all. Also there are other very blue star clouds to be seen as you scan around the image. Most toward the far right of my image. It feels rather odd to be scanning an image 4008 pixels across and stay within a small region of M31. When I got into DSO imaging nearly 60 years ago now (1956) I never dreamed I'd ever take an image at this image scale. I was happy to see NGC 206 as an unresolved blob in M31.

One thing I learned is that NGC 206 is home to several Cepheid and eclipsing binary stars. The DIRECT Project http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~kstanek/CfA/DIRECT/ has used these stars to determine the distance to the star cloud and a lot more in the galaxy and thus M31. I found nothing at the site saying what distance they found. APOD says they found a distance of 3 million light-years http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap990402.html which is further than most estimates I've seen. Original Hipparcos data said 2.7 million light-years which seemed to get reduced to 2.5 million or increased to 2.9 million light-years for reasons I never did discover. Now, this figure of 3 million light-years caught me by surprise. If right maybe we have another billion years before we collide with it.

NGC 206 was discovered by William Herschel on October 17, 1786. It is in the second Herschel 400 observe program as a "Bright Nebula" rather than a star cloud or star cluster.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=8x10'x1 RGB=2x10x2, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC0206

NGC0210

NGC 210 sure belongs on Arp's list though somehow he missed it. Could be the detail just wasn't visible to film of his time but the dust lanes were known in 1961. I had to really process the heck out of it to show the features near the core. Namely the odd dust lane(s) that cuts across everything and the ring of star clouds around the core. I see the dust lane on a couple internet images but didn't suspect the star clouds that popped out when I processed for the dust lane. I believe they are real as I can see them if I do a histogram stretch of the region with just the right values using the raw FITS file stack. The high pass filter though brought them out much better in the processed image. Most papers refer to there being two dust lanes. At first, I thought I saw two, a short one coming from the north to the core and a much longer one coming in from the south but after processing they merged into one. If so it/they may be a foreground feature and not part of the galaxy at all. Unlikely but possible I suppose.

NGC 210 is also odd in that it has a bright inner core (greatly reduced in intensity in my image to preserve detail) that is a tight spiral disk with a small nucleus. Outside this are two wide spread arms in a faint disk. There's only a faint hint of a bar connecting them to the inner bright region. Sort of like a barred spiral whose bar has faded nearly away.

I find it classed SbI one place, S(rs)b another and SAB(s)b yet another. NGC project says SAB(s)bI. Take your pick. It lies some 60 to 70 million light-years from us as best as I could determine.

A radio image if the galaxy shows it has an HI (non-ionized hydrogen) tail that extends down to and a bit past the galaxy to its southeast in my image, PGC 169998/2MASX J00410068-1358160. This is just a coincidence as that galaxy is some 700 million light-years distant and thus not involved. Though the tail does indicate it has interacted with some other galaxy in the past. No, it's not the one to the NE. I agree it is really strange as well and certainly could be a candidate. It is PGC2454/MCG -02-02-082 but it is 370 million light-years from us so too isn't a candidate. But it sure ran into something it appears.

More likely is NGC 178 out of the image to the southwest that tangled with NGC 210. It is still to be imaged, unfortunately. These are at -14 degrees so further south than I can go except for rare nights. I never got another after taking NGC 210 last fall. There are other candidates such as PGC 2465 out of the image to the north-northeast as well as some others that form a small group with NGC 210 being the core. All have redshift values in the 50 to 70 million light year range so likely do form a true group that could have had all sorts of interactions in the past.

This field is not covered by the Sloan survey so few galaxies are cataloged and most that are are just anonymous listings in the UK automatic plate measurement survey that records only brightness and crude spectral data. A few IR galaxies from the 2MASS survey are included as well.

The bright galaxy seen through the outer arms of NGC 210 at 4 O'clock is 2MASX J00403079-1353088. There's no distance data. The other galaxy seen through the outer disk at the 6:30 position is uncatalogued as far as I can determine.

The only other galaxy with a known redshift is southwest of 2MASX J00410068-1358160, the one the tail of NGC 210 extends to the southeast of NGC 210. Halfway between that galaxy and a bright blue star are a pair of spindle-shaped galaxies. The one on the left is 2MASX J00404728-1400190 at 680 million light years, about the same as the much larger 2MASX J00410068-1358160. Several other small galaxies are in the area. Are they part of this group? I have no idea.

Adam Block's image of this galaxy, http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/n210.html, shows what appears to be an extended outer halo about the galaxy. I put more luminosity time into it, more than he did in fact, but I saw no sign of it in my stack.

It was discovered by William Herschel on October 3, 1785. It isn't in either Herschel 400 program.

An interesting article on this object is at:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/d716m73032388m6v/fulltext.pdf

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=7x10', RGB=2x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC0210

NGC0218

NGC 218 is the western member of an interacting pair of galaxies. It is also known as PGC 2720. Problem is most sources, including The Sky and the NGC Project, for example, list PGC 2493 as NGC 218. So if looking this one up, be sure you go to the right galaxy. Arp had a category for galaxies exhibiting what he called "wind effects". This one certainly appears to belong in that very misleadingly named category.

NGC 218 is a highly distorted spiral that NED (they get the right galaxy) classifies as Sc while Seligman (also gets the right galaxy) says Sbc? pec. To my eye, Seligman gets it right. One paper considers it a starburst galaxy but does note there are peculiarities to its radio signature that don't fit a starburst galaxy. The galaxy, it is obviously interacting with, is MCG +06-02-017/PGC 2726. The pair are VV 527. Redshift measurements put the pair at 490 million light-years distant in the constellation of Andromeda about 5 degrees south of far more famous M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. This great distance means that NGC 218 is huge. Including the plumes, I get a size of 260,000 light-years. Ignoring the plumes and drawn out arm it is still over 100,000 light-years in size. The red companion is 115,000 light-years in size including the odd south going appendage and about 85,000 light-years ignoring it. NGC 218 was discovered on October 17, 1876 by Édouard Stephan.

For a discussion of the mix up on the identity of NGC 218 see http://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ngc2.htm#218 Unfortunately this was taken with the poor transparency and even worse seeing so I missed a lot. The best image of this pair I know of is Adam Block's image at: http://skycenter.arizona.edu/gallery/Galaxies/NGC218

In the southwestern portion of the image is a trio of interacting galaxies. They are well shown in Adam Block's image (32" scope on a top imaging mountain helps greatly) shows this trio quite well. I'd not found his image when I processed this image and at first though the faint plumes from this trio were not real but due to a dust mot that had vanished from the optical window of the camera. I almost processed it out but luckily decided to leave it in. The galaxy on the left is PGC 2077321. The one on the right is 2MASX J00454158+3614374. The one in the middle is a quandary. NED shows GALEXMSC J004542.42+361437.5 between the two but puts it 4" too far north. Its position error bar is only a bit over 2" in radius putting it too far north. But with nothing at the given position I have to assume the error bar is itself in error and this is the intended object. Unfortunately, NED shows no magnitude for it. The Sky has neither of the last two in its database. It does put a magnitude of 16.5 on PGC 2077321 which appears reasonable. NED doesn't even have a magnitude for it. I assume all three are interacting and kicking up the plumes. But I found absolutely nothing on any of these three.

As there's a lot to this one I missed I should try to reshoot it under better conditions but even then I'd not have skies like Adam has atop Mount Lemon in Arizona. Even my poor image makes it look like NGC 218 is trying to reach out and touch MCG +06-02-017.

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

Related Designations for NGC0218

NGC0246

NGC 246 (Caldwell 56), The Skull Nebula, is a large planetary nebula some 1600 light years away. It is one of the big ones, being over 2 light-years across. Making this one difficult for me is its rather low declination. All winter low in the sky has been very obscured by fog over the lake at night. That not only dims the image something awful, it also makes the seeing very poor so the image is fuzzy. This time it was so bad I have cut it to half size. Note the stars are really muted by the fog as well. Normally I'd not even run an image this poor but it's typical of what the sky has given me all winter. I did kill many dozen objects even worse than this due to conditions.

It was discovered by William Herschel on November 27, 1785. It is in the original Herschel 400 observing program. My note from September 10, 1985 at 60 power under fair but humid skies with my 10" f/5 reads; "Large, somewhat oval, planetary nebula, Easy with a UHC filter but difficult otherwise. Looks almost like a poor star cluster (only 4 stars seen) with involved nebulosity but UHC brings out its true nature. Two of the stars are within it while the other two were on its edge.

For a far clearer but false color image of it see the shot taken by Gemini South, one of the worlds largest observatory telescopes with a mirror 27 feet across compared to mine at 1.17 feet across. It collects over 500 times as much light as I can but cost about 5000 times as much. Its optical system was the responsibility of one of our astronomy club's early members, Larry Stepp, so many of us feel some connection to this pair of telescopes (Gemini North in Hawaii and Gemini South in Chili)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060418.html

This was one of my very first images taken back when I had some very wrong ideas about how to take the images nor did I know how to process my data. Thus, while conditions hurt it so did my ignorance.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x5', R=4x4.75' G=4x4' B=4x3.75', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC0246

NGC0262

NGC 262 is a much studied spiral galaxy in Andromeda about 190 million light-years away. It somehow missed being in Arp's Atlas as it would fit his category for spirals with high surface brightness companions on an arm. The companion is LEDA 212600. While it is likely a true companion there's no distance data of any type to confirm this at NED. NGC 262 appears it could be somewhat tidally distorted. It is surrounded by a huge halo of cold hydrogen gas. This can be seen in the image at: http://images.nrao.edu/32 . The image is oriented the same as mine. This site says the companion has the same redshift as NGC 262. Note it lies well within the Hydrogen halo. It was discovered by Lewis Swift on September 17, 1885.

NED lists it in 57 different catalogs! Few other galaxies I've seen are in that many different catalogs. It is a Seyfert 2 galaxy though a couple catalogs list it as a quasar. NED and the NGC Project list it as SA(s)0/a: This means they see it as midway between a S0 and Sa galaxy and the colon indicates some uncertainty. Looking at old photos it shows no sign of the spiral arms so I can see how it got the S0 designation but today's images clearly show an Sa galaxy though the classification of old is still used. NGC 262 and its companion are two of three galaxies of the PPS2 083 galaxy group. Problem is I don't know for sure which galaxy is the third. The position is midway between these two and the blue galaxy near the bottom of my image. I assume it is the third member. Unfortunately, I can't find it in any catalog I have. It isn't listed in NED's catalog, SIMBAD's catalogs nor those in The Sky. The only other galaxy of any significant angular size is the edge on galaxy southwest of NGC 262. It is 2MFGC 00579 so considered a flat galaxy by the 2MASS survey.

I have an odd faint blob southeast of NGC 262. It is just east of a moderately bright, slightly red star. I can't find it on the Sloan survey image or POSS plates so it may not be real. There is a similar smudge northeast of NGC 262 but closer to it. It fills the space between a fainter blue star and a tiny blue galaxy. This smudge does show very faintly in the Sloan image so likely real. Also, it is within the hydrogen loop shown in the above image so may be related to it. I can't see anything that could cause a reflection to make the first blob but I think it's quite likely something did. I didn't edit it out just in case I'm wrong. I need to re-shoot this with a different center to see if it really is real or not. It does show equally well in all 8 subs so not a transient event. Nor does it match the cold hydrogen in the radio image. So far this year the weather has made that impossible.

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

Related Designations for NGC0262

NGC0266

NGC 266 is a classic barred spiral in northern Pisces right on the border with Andromeda. In fact, the western edge of the galaxy lies in Andromeda. It is some 200 million light-years distant and classed as SB(rs)ab. In fact, it is often the textbook example of that classification. It is a huge galaxy. Assuming the 200 million light-year distance it is some 180,000 light-years across.

While NGC 266 was discovered by William Herschel September 12, 1784 it isn't in either of the Herschel 400 observing programs by the Astronomical League. As a fairly normal barred spiral galaxy, why did I image it? I normally don't go for the ordinary objects. Looking around the net I found a fair number of folks have imaged it. The answer is that it was an accident. My to-do list does list NGC 0266 but then goes on to describe it as "NGC 0266 is a pair of interacting galaxies. The tail is long and straight -- faint" I go on to say it may be too far south then list the declination for the real NGC 0266 at 32 degrees north. Obviously, I made a mistake somewhere. I have no idea what interacting galaxy pair I meant. So instead I ended up with a rather photogenic galaxy image. If anyone figures out what galaxy's designation I scrambled please let me know so I can try again.

While I seem to have imaged the wrong galaxy it is interesting. The arm coming from the west side that loops over the one from the east side ends suddenly as if it and the disk between it and the other arm were bitten off by some huge galaxy eater (Super Godzilla) leaving a bit of debris behind. Otherwise, the galaxy seems very normal.

It is located in an area little studied for distant galaxies. Only one other galaxy has a distance measurement in NED. It is the elliptical like galaxy with a huge faint halo south of NGC 266 at a distance of some 870 million light-years. A third object is listed in NED with a distance of 230 million light-years. It is a radio source not listed as a galaxy. Its position has a radius error bar of 45 arc seconds which is huge. In the center of the error circle lies on a faint, highly distorted galaxy at the bottom of my image. I've indicated it with a question mark beside the name as it might or might not be referring to the galaxy in my image.

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

Related Designations for NGC0266