NGC4330

NGC 4330 is a fuzzy, somewhat warped edge on galaxy in northwestern Virgo not far from the "Realm of the Galaxies". It is also cataloged in the Flat Galaxy Catalog as FGC 1423, the main reason it went on my to-do list. Redshift puts it nearly 90 light-years distant but non-redshift measurements place it a bit over 60 million light-years away. The latter would make it a "Realm" galaxy as they are about 60 million light-years away. The higher redshift could just be due to its orbital velocity around the cluster. Cluster members can have even higher redshifts as well as slight blue shifts for this reason. It's its fuzzy outline and warped shape that interested me in imaging it. Note the fuzzy edges warp differently than the bright, well-defined-region. The northeast end warps up looking at the faint detail while the bright warps down. Both bright ends warp down. The west end of the fuzzy part is so, well fuzzy, I could argue for straight, bent down or maybe even up. In any case, these features would argue for a interaction or merger in its past. Being there are a lot of Virgo Cluster galaxies to the north and northeast such an interaction isn't surprising. It was discovered by Bindon Stoney on April 14, 1852.

When I saw the first frame come in there was a very faint smudge to the west. I was sure it was a ghost of some star reflecting off something. I get this rather often. In this case, it wasn't over a star so I figured I'd clone it out rather than move the scope. Turns out it is a real galaxy. Its classification indicates it is a very low surface brightness dwarf galaxy. While it is numbered with a Virgo Cluster number there were many in this image that had such designations but were some 890 million light-years distant. Still, I think it likely it a member of the cluster. But with no redshift data that's just a guess.

To the south-southwest of NGC 4330 is a similar galaxy, bright enough I was sure it was a galaxy while taking the image. Still, I wish it had redshift data. PGC 040134 to the northwest looks similar and has a redshift that puts it much closer than the Virgo Cluster. Still, as mentioned, redshifts in this range aren't surprising for members of the group. I suspect it too a dwarf member of the cluster.

Toward the right edge of the image is ASK5606.0. Seen in the Sloan image it is three overlapping galaxy-like objects. The position at NED points to the easternmost of the three. I drew a line to that part of the blob. My seeing this night wasn't sufficient to resolve the trio. It would take a great night. Those are rare, especially at the time of the year this region is best seen. Warm spring air and cold winter air is constantly fighting with me the loser.

In the upper left corner is a pair of galaxies, IC 3261 and Borngen 171 also known as PGC 40289. IC 3261 was discovered by Royal Frost on an image he took on May 7, 1904. There's nothing at his position. Oddly, no one been able to see the plate. Some say he actually saw Borngen 171 though it is further from his position. Others say Frost's description matches the one I've labeled IC 3261 and it quite likely his photo gear was unable of even seeing the other galaxy. I chose to use the Borngen designation as it is rare. Turns out there's another from his catalog nearby that likely is yet another Virgo Cluster member with a high redshift. Borngen 171 may be as well.

NGC 4352 in the lower left corner is at a high redshift for a cluster member but with a series of non-redshift measurements that put it squarely in line with it being a cluster member. It is an SA0: galaxy with little visible detail. It was discovered by William Herschel on March 15, 1784. It isn't in either Herschel 400 program.

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

Related Designations for NGC4330

NGC4331

NGC 4331 is a very weird galaxy in Draco west of the bottom of the bowl of the Little Dipper. Redshift puts it about 74 million light-years away. A single Tully-Fisher measurement says 87 million light-years. The NGC project says it is an irregular galaxy while NED goes a bit further saying Im? The "I" for irregular and the "m" for Magellanic type, that is having characteristics of the Magellanic Cloud galaxies. The CGPG maybe says it best: "Blue post-eruptive oval patchy compact with comet-like plume, d = 2' north-south immersed double knot." I assume that double knot is the odd pair of near star-like features in the lower part of the galaxy. To me, it looks like some one-celled protozoa I used to photograph as a kid through my microscope. Just a lot bluer than they were. Often a galaxy as weird as this one is the result of some interaction. I found nothing much within a 90 minute radius that looked like it had tangled with another galaxy though I did find a surprising number of galaxies at about its distance, 14 of them with NGC 4319 the most interesting looking. It is much larger so could do some damage with little harm to itself. I've added it to my to-do list. It lies some 51 minutes nearly due south and is considered by one paper to be somewhat disrupted. It was discovered by William Herschel on December 12, 1797. It's not in either H400 program.

This is a little studied area of the sky. I was unable to find anything more on this galaxy. NED had no distance data on any other object in the field so I didn't prepare an annotated image.

Seeing wasn't very good when I started on this one. Then after my first three luminance frames seeing went to pot. I took 5 then the color data then one more luminance frame before dawn terminated the session. Seeing suddenly improved again for that last frame. Though seeing wasn't very good for any I did use the best four. Color data had really bad seeing of 5" or worse FWHM. I didn't realize conditions had gotten so bad so never retook the data, unfortunately. So this is the best for now. It is on the reshoot list. Much of 2012 is on the reshoot list and so far things aren't looking much better for 2013.

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

Related Designations for NGC4331

NGC4359

NGC 4359 is a late type near edge-on spiral galaxy in northern Coma Berenices. It was discovered by William Herschel on March 20, 1787. It is in the second Herschel 400 program. My main reason for taking it is in my attempt to catch as many in that program as I can from this northern declination. Note the odd dust lane running diagonally across the galaxy's disk just west of the brighter core region. This reminds me a bit of the dust bands seen across M81. In the case of M81, they are due to dust in our galaxy. The entire field is full of galactic cirrus so it isn't surprising. Here there's very little cirrus so I suspect the dust is in NGC 4539 itself. I had no idea the band existed until it popped out of my processing. I see it in the SDSS images though it seems a bit stronger in mine for some reason.

Below NGC 4359 is an object I have labeled Q?. The SDSS lists it both as a galaxy and a quasar. Usually, I just consider it a quasar and move on. The problem here is it is rather red for a quasar. The color would favor it being a galaxy though the SDSS's first choice is a quasar. I added the question mark just in case that is wrong.

Otherwise, the field is rather ordinary for my images. Being well north of the ecliptic no asteroids are in the image.

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

Related Designations for NGC4359

NGC4361

NGC 4361 in a rather famous planetary in the quadrilateral of Corvus. The central star sits in a dark hole in the planetary. That isn't a processing artifact. The hole is real. I was unable to find any source for a distance to it other than one reference to 2500 light-years that gave no indication where the estimate came from. While Spitzer has imaged it, their text has no mention of distance. I suspect they would if there was any reliable estimate available. APOD and others similarly avoid even mentioning distance. http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/2710-ssc2009-15a3-Planetary-Nebula-NGC-4361

It was discovered by William Herschel on February 7, 1785. It's in the original H400 program. My log for that on the night of April 20-1985 with my 10" f/5 on a typical for me humid night at 50x reads: "Small fuff of a planetary nebula. Edges don't seem sharply defined though they do get sharper when the UHC filter is used. No central star was seen at 50x. Blue-green color faintly seen but isn't as striking as in most planetaries."

There are several galaxies in my image (you didn't expect me to not mention them) but again no distance data is available for them either. The area isn't in the Sloan survey. The obvious spindle galaxy to the northwest of NGC 4361 is 2MASX J12242187-1841381. The few others in the image NED catalogs are all from this catalog.

The planetary, when seen in black and white photos, shows a spiral shape rather like a distorted spiral galaxy with a bright core. There have been tales of astronomy instructors slipping it into an exercise for the students to classify galaxies. None give specifics so this may be just a tale. I'll admit that when I first brought up a raw luminance image to see about my note to retake it, I was in the middle of processing galaxies. My brain first saw it as a galaxy until the 4361 registered in my brain. At that point, I was thinking I'd misidentified the image and it really was a galaxy. So this tale certainly sounds plausible.

At -18.75 degrees it is down in my gunk and below my normal imaging limits. I gave it a try anyway last March. But the results were so bad I marked it retake. Still, I decided to give a try at pulling something out of the data. Blue was severely scattered by both ice in the air over the lake as well as normal atmospheric scattering. Thus my usual formulas for compensating for atmospheric scattering alone greatly under-compensated. With a lot of trial and error, I think I have a reasonable color balance. Seeing was a bit worse than 3" so the image is rather fuzzy. Still, it is better than I expected. Unless I get an exceptional night I'll likely not try again.

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

Related Designations for NGC4361

NGC4395

NGC 4395 is said to be the home of the smallest known "massive" black hole to occupy the core of a galaxy at least when I wrote this. Astronomers have discovered the size of a galaxies core is proportional to the size of the black hole in the core. So not only is this guy's black hole small so is the core. I found an old article on the net and while it is only a bit over a year old already things have turned upside down since it was written. It suggests the core is small because it was eaten by the black hole but then also states the black hole is the smallest known. If it had eaten the core it's hard to then say it is small. That's the dieter's heaven. The more you eat the less you weigh. The article is at:
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=2905 (Edit: This link is no longer available so maybe they realized the problem.)

It is now thought the lack of a core is due to it not having a normal sized black hole. Also, that explains why it has not much to eat, it never did so never gained much weight. Everything else in the article is still considered correct, check back next week, things change rapidly as our knowledge increases. We still don't know whether the size of the black hole governs the size of the core, bigger attracts more mass to the core, or the big core gave it a lot to eat and it thus grew large. It's the proverbial which came first issue. Right now most seem to think the black hole came first but this can't be proven as yet.

But for all the talk of the core having nothing to eat this galaxy has a Seyfert type 1 nucleus. This means the black hole is far more active than the larger one in the core of our galaxy which isn't active enough to rate Seyfert classification. Also, this is a rather small galaxy much like the large Magellanic cloud rather than a big classic barred spiral like ours. Somehow all that was lost in the article as well.

This is also a rather distorted spiral. The arms are anything but symmetrical and leave the core in a very disorganized fashion compared to most spirals. This is a characteristic of a Magellanic type spiral galaxy.

Edit: The above was written back in 2007 and not done well. Three knots in the galaxy are NGC 4399, NGC 4400 and 4401 but I've not done an annotated image to point them out. They are in Right Association order. They are the bright blue blobs below the core region. I hope to redo it when time allows. I must add that this one was discovered by William Herschel on January 2, 1786. It is in the second H400 program. Being an early image I underexposed the L channel more than normal so it is a rather noisy image. Another to reshoot but likely won't find time to do.

14" LX,200R @ f/10 L=3x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC4395

NGC4402

NGC 4402 in the heart of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster is another spiral with its dust and gas being stripped by ram pressure due to its high velocity through the cluster's intergalactic medium. Like NGC 4522, the gas and dust are being blown upward -- actually left behind as the denser parts of the galaxy are little phased by the ram pressure). It may account for its curved dust lane as well. Even in my image the "lifting" of the dust in the dust lane due to ram pressure seems rather obvious having a 3D appearance. I didn't do any special processing, it just came out that way with my ordinary processing. The Hubble image and story about this is at http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0911c/ .

Since this galaxy is located near Arp 120 (NGC 4435 and 4438) I framed it to include them. There seems to be some question if the two are interacting or not. One school says the relative speeds are so high they wouldn't be close enough for long enough to account for NGC 4438's tidal plumes. That school feels the plumes are due to ingesting a galaxy in the past. Though there's no sign of the remains of this galaxy.

The image contains many dwarf members of the Virgo cluster. The N in some of their classification means they are "nucleated", that is, have an obvious nucleus.

While I've included redshifts they are quite unreliable for this cluster. The members have high relative velocities making redshift a poor distance indicator. Some members have a blue shift others have such a low redshift the conversion to a distance is meaningless. I've included non-redshift estimates when available in parentheses. VCC entries are from the Virgo Cluster Catalog.

The other galaxies in the field make this one considerably more photogenic than was NGC 4522. To me, it's the idea that ram pressure can tear dust and gas right out a galaxy against its great gravity well that makes these "photogenic".

Edit: I need to add that NGC 4402 was discovered by Arthus von Auwers on March 5, 1862 or so many sources say. Others say he was just publicizing Stoney's discovery though the date is correct. Since it is easily seen in my 6" f/4 scope how was it missed all those years? Stoney was at Lord Rosse's observatory but used a 6.2" scope to find the galaxy.

NGC 4435 and NGC 4438 were discovered by William Herschel on April 8, 1784. Both are in the original H400 program. My only comment on it from April 20, 1985 with my 10" f/5 at 50x due to humidity limiting issues reads, "Forms a tight double with NGC 4438. Six other galaxies are seen in the same one-degree field of view." Nothing on the galaxy itself! My entry at the same time for NGC 4438 reads, "Large, highly elongated galaxy with a very irregular halo that stretches nearly to NGC 4435. M-084, M-086 NGC 4402, NGC 4413, NGC 4425 and NGC 4435 are all in the same field of view." Apparently, I was more taken by the field than the galaxy.

IC 3355 is a very blue irregular Magellanic class galaxy. Apparently, interaction with others in the area has triggered the formation of a lot of young blue stars. Arnold Schwassmann discovered it on November 17, 1900.

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

Related Designations for NGC4402

NGC4411

The area around the galaxy groups of NGC 4410 and NGC 4411 is a very galaxy dense region in Virgo but only 3 of the galaxies are likely members of the Virgo Cluster. They are NGC 4411a and b as well as VCC 933. The two NGC 4411 spirals have a nearly identical redshift that puts them 74 million light-years away but Tully Fisher measurements put them at a more realistic 55 million light-years. NGC 4411a is considered the true entry for NGC 4411 though some sources incorrectly give the honor to NGC 4411b. The sky takes no sides and calls both NGC 4411 but will use the correct one when forced to choose between them. NGC 4411a was discovered by Christian Peters in 1881. The star just off the core was seen by Arnold Schwassmann on January 23, 1900 and is entered into the IC as #3339. He may have mistaken the star for the core and thus did see the galaxy. NGC 4411b was probably seen by Bigourdan on April 25th, 1895 it never made it into the NGC or IC catalogs but is now known as NGC 4411b. While they apparently lie close together they don't show any sign of interaction.

That's not the case with the NGC 4410 group to the north. Why Arp failed to include it in his atlas I don't understand. NGC 4410 is a pair of interacting, highly distorted galaxies about 350 million light-years distant. It was discovered by John Herschel on January 18, 1828. Both are quite red galaxies with plumes going every which way. The major plume goes to the northeast apparently connecting with NGC 4410C and NGC 4410D. NGC 4410C was discovered by Bigourdan the same night he found NGC 4411b. Like the NGC 4410 pair, it too is a rather red S0 galaxy with an AGN core. This may indicate true interaction with NGC 4410. The plume then bends at NGC 4410C to head toward NGC 4410D though seems to go a bit south of that galaxy. Still, there is a faint plume north of it as well. It is the bluest of the four. Other than the plume going near it I can't see any hint of distortion or other sign of interaction. It might be there's no connection however that makes the kink in the plume's direction at NGC 4410C harder to explain.

While there are quite a few other members of the group. The group goes through NGC 4410K in my image though one is off the frame to the north. A couple, however, aren't real members, G and I are more than three times the distance of the others.

The image is full of interesting galaxies. On the far right is LEDA 1356246 which seems to be a pair of galaxies, the eastern one small and blue. They may be totally unrelated but without redshift data on the eastern one, I can't say.

On the eastern side near a very bright orange star is AGC 225023 which seems to have a large but faint plume to the south-southwest. There's a small galaxy on the southwest edge of it that's not listed at NED. It probably is background but it could be the remains of whatever created that large "wind effect" plume to use Arp's terminology.

I'm a bit puzzled by the galaxy cluster Abell 1541C which is listed as being at the distance of the Virgo Cluster and thus the NGC 4411 group to the west but nothing at that distance is around its location which is exactly the same as for Abell 1541A which matches the NGC 4410 group well to the northeast. The cluster at that location, Abell 1541, without a letter, which, while having no redshift distance listed seems to be the cluster anchored by two large galaxies at 1.18 to 1.20 billion light-years. Another somewhat smaller cluster at about the same distance is to the north is anchored by LEDA 94216.

Over 100 other galaxies had redshift data so are included in the annotated image along with one lone asteroid and a quasar with a z>2. Several other quasars were listed but are seen through bright galaxies and while I can find them in the Sloan image they didn't make it through my rather poor seeing so I didn't try to point out what I couldn't see. This is likely the densest annotated image I've attempted to date. It did take more than my usual 45 minutes to do!

Unfortunately, seeing was very poor for this one. I didn't look at it until months later so will try again next spring on a better night as this field deserves better than this. (Edit: Still hasn't happened.)

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

Related Designations for NGC4411

NGC4441

This is another great galaxy ignored by amateurs who mostly prefer retaking the same stuff over and over again. After searching several image forums and AstoBin I came up with exactly ZERO images of this great object. Looking a bit to find these great objects must be too difficult so many take the same old stuff over and over ad nauseam.

NGC 4441 is a very disturbed galaxy that belongs in Arp's catalog of peculiar galaxies. Arp included three in various stages of merger, Arp 104 (NGC 5218) being the earliest and Apr 214 (NGC 3718) Arp 160 (NGC 4194) and NGC 4441, that didn't make Arp's list as later stages of merger. https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2014/09/aa23548-14/aa23548-14.html

http://www.mantrapskies.com/image-archive/ARP_GALAXIES/ARP104/ARP104L9X10R5X10X3G4X10X3B2X10X3R.jpg
http://www.mantrapskies.com/image-archive/ARP_GALAXIES/ARP160/ARP160NGC4194L4X10RGB2X10R1CROP125.JPG
http://www.mantrapskies.com/image-archive/ARP_GALAXIES/ARP214-NGC3718/NGC3718L12X10RGB4X10R.JPG

Another paper https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2010/01/aa09686-08/aa09686-08.html says it is the result of the merger of a spiral and elliptical galaxy. In any case, it is one heck of a messed up galaxy. I suppose it will eventually settle down to be an elliptical galaxy.

Only 4441 isn't an Arp but could have been one. Why he chose to omit it I don't know. Also he put these obvious (with today's knowledge but not his back when the atlas was prepared) mergers into three different categories, Arp 104 in "Elliptical galaxies connected to spirals", Arp 160 in "Disturbed galaxies with interior absorption" and Arp 214 in "Galaxies; Irregularities, absorption and resolution" whatever that means. Where would he have put NGC 4441? I can think of a half dozen categories it would fit. Arp was interested in appearance not in the why so has no classification for mergers even though many of his entries are the result of either direct mergers or at least interaction with another galaxy.

Notice the odd narrow dust lane crossing just below the very core of the galaxy. It ends with a blob of dust at its right end. It may be due to the merging galaxy being at a nearly right angle to the face on galaxy.

The only other NGC galaxy in the image is just a basic SA0-: galaxy. Both were discovered by William Herschel on March 20, 1790. Neither are in either H400 observing program from the Astronomical League.

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

Related Designations for NGC4441

NGC4448

NGC 4448 is a rather red flocculent galaxy in northern Coma Berenices some 44 to 52 million light-years distant. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1785. It made my list initially because it was a Herschel 400 galaxy but when I looked into it I saw it was quite interesting and the field contained some really strange galaxies so it got bumped up to high priority last spring. My entry from April 23, 1985 in my Herschel 400 log isn't very encouraging. It reads: "Large, oval galaxy, brighter toward center, otherwise featureless, little detail seen. Seems larger than indicated." This image of it certainly shows plenty of detail. It is classified as SB(r)ab with HII emission from the very core. Otherwise it seems to lake new stars. I don't know if the red is dust or old red stars. Probably both. Redshift puts it at the nearer distance while the median of 5 widely differing measurements by 4 different methods gives a distance of 52 million light-years. They range from 31 to 153 million light-years. If the distance is assumed to be 50 million light-years its size is 70,000 light-years which is a reasonable size for it.

The field contains a polar ring galaxy UGC 07576 at 330 million light years and a strange curved flat galaxy FGC 171A (no connection to FGC 171 which is in another part of the sky entirely). NED gives two positions for it one from the 2MFGC and the other from the FGC. The VV catalog considers it a pair of galaxies and says VV 279 is a triple galaxy. The two NED positions for the curved flat galaxy are at its core and a spot between the core and the north end of the galaxy. The error bars are somewhat larger than normal but not large enough to overlap the two positions. I have no idea if VV 279a is related as I find no redshift for it. The flat galaxy has a redshift that puts it only slightly further away than NGC 4448 so the two may be related. How it got its curved shape remains a mystery, to me at least.

The polar ring galaxy has a huge narrow polar ring. It may be really narrow or it might be just flat and seen edge on. One paper argues for the latter. I just call it strange. At 333 million light-years it is unrelated to the others. Assuming the stated distance the polar ring is some 145,000 light-years across while the main disk of the galaxy is only 60,000 light-years across.

The very blue UGC 7597 lies above and a bit east of NGC 4448. It appears to have a rather bright core (bar?) and a faint blue disk. It is a large galaxy about 100,000 light-years across. LEDA 1839783 at 290 million light-years looks like a small close by blue dwarf but is actually a rather large low surface brightness blue galaxy some 50,000 light-years in size.

All galaxies with redshifts noted at NED are shown in the annotated image as is one quasar. Those whose catalog name is just its sky coordinates are listed by G for galaxy or Q for quasar.

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

Related Designations for NGC4448

NGC4449

NGC 4449 is very similar to the Large Magellanic Cloud, just a lot farther away at about 12.5 million light years, give or take a million or so. I've not been able to pin down a good distance measurement even though Hubble did take an excellent shot of it. Like the Large Magellanic cloud this galaxy is a starburst galaxy meaning star formation is going on at an unusually high rate throughout the galaxy. And like the Large Magellanic Cloud it is a galaxy without much organization. It has a long axis but stars clump at random down this axis showing no pattern. The blue color in my shot indicates areas of new stars which seem randomly scattered about the galaxy.

You can read more about this galaxy in Canes Venatici here http://spider.seds.org/spider/Misc/n4449_hst.html There's a link to the Hubble picture at the site as well as other photos of the galaxy.

Edit: The above is all I wrote back in 2007 when this was done. Until I can rewrite it here so additional information.

It was discovered by William Herschel on April 27, 1788 and is in the original H400 Observing Program. My notes from April 29, 1984 with a 12.5" f/5 scope at 150 power on an excellent night read, "Bright, much mottling in the center and to the north. A fine object! At 10th magnitude, it is easy and should show detail in a much smaller telescope that this." I also looked at it in my 10" f/5 and 6" f/4 but didn't make any notes, unfortunately. Until I can do more the Hubble page you can get to through the link above has information as does the Hubble site. http://hubblesite.org/image/2155/news_release/2007-26

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=5x10' RGB=1x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC4449