NGC4145

NGC 4145 is a barred spiral in western Canes Venatici about 68 million light-years distant. Redshift puts it a bit closer, other measurements at NED average 67 with the Spitzer Space Telescope website saying 68. It is considered part of the Ursa Major Galaxy group. While it is listed as having HII emission and a hint of it is seen in my image most say it has little dust and gas left so it's star-forming days are mostly over. It still has some blue in its arms, however. The Spitzer image is rather dim where star formation would normally be seen in IR indicating there really isn't much star formation going on. NGC 4145 was discovered by William Herschel on March 18, 1787. It is in the second H400 Observing Program.

There is a star like object toward the northwest end of the bar yet the galaxy shows no core. Is this object its core pulled off center? One note at NED indicates that either this is the core or a star, they can't tell which. I'd expect a core to be rather bright in the Spitzer image yet it has only about the same brightness difference as seen in visual light. If a star it is somewhat red so would show in an IR image at about the brightness seen in the Spitzer image. My seeing is so poor my stars are pretty fuzzy. In better seeing the PSF of the stars would be enough different from a core that it would likely answer the question but the seeing was so poor in my image some stars have a PSF similar to distant galaxies. I'd expect a small bright core could have a PSF similar to a star in my image thanks to the seeing. Still, for now, I am going to say it more likely a star though Adam Block says it is the core and off-center because this galaxy is interacting with NGC 4151 (yet to be imaged thanks to my lousy spring) to the south. (Edit: It has been taken since this was written.) To me, a force that pulls the core off center would create noticeable (likely great) distortion in the galaxy. I see none. Though NGC 4151 does have huge faint outer arms that could indicate it has interacted with some other galaxy. Or it may be this way due to digesting a recently eaten galaxy. Adam's direct image lick has died but you can see it here http://annesastronomynews.com/photo-gallery-ii/galaxies-clusters/ngc-4145-by-adam-block/

The other major galaxy in the image is NGC 4145A. Its redshift distance is about the same as the Spitzer distance for NGC 4145. If correct they are true companions. Even the single Tully Fisher measurement is not greatly different. A note at NED mentions a small galaxy "attached" to it. Even in my poor seeing it doesn't appear attached though there is a faint star between it and NGC 4145A. Redshift shows they are separated by over a billion light-years. So much for it being "attached".

The annotated image has one galaxy west of NGC 4145 marked by a question mark. As usual, it means the object isn't listed by NED. Low surface brightness galaxies sometimes suffer this fate. Why I don't know. I don't hunt for these but stumble across them. I'm sure they are more common than my annotated images indicate.

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

Related Designations for NGC4145

NGC4147

NGC 4147 is a globular cluster Coma Berenices about 63,000 light-years from us and 70,000 light-years from the center of the galaxy so it is in the far outer reaches of our galaxy's halo well above the galaxies plane. It was discovered by William Herschel on March 14, 1784. A few weeks earlier, on February 15, 1784 he found an object now listed as NGC 4153. There is nothing at that position. Some think it was really what we now know as NGC 4147. SIMBAD considers it non-existent. Others including NED and my database in The Sky say the two are the same object.

The globular is considered by many to not be our globular at all but that of the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy (SagDEG) that is being torn apart and digested by our galaxy. Other globulars are also considered likely members of this mostly dismembered galaxy including M54, Palomar 2, Palomar 12 and Whiting 1. M54 and Palomar 12 are too far south for my latitude. Whiting 1 has been on the to-do list for some time now but it is such a poor object I've assigned it a low priority. Because of this it just doesn't get taken.

It made my list because globulars in this part of the sky are rare though M 53 and NGC 5053 are two well-known globulars in Coma Berenices that are much closer to us. It also made the list because it is in the original Herschel 400 list. My entry from April 20, 1985 with my 10" f/5 reads: " Small, compact globular. Grainy but not resolved. Slightly brighter toward the center."

I had this one on my to-do list twice. Once under NGC 4147 and once under a two object combination of it and the flat galaxy FGC 1379. Somehow I gave the single object a higher priority and ended up centering on the globular rather than between these two. Thus the very interesting FGC 1379 was out of the field. A blunder on my part. Jim Shudder didn't make my mistake so you can see what I missed at: http://www.pbase.com/jshuder/image/123936737/original . It was Jim's image that showed me I could put both in one field then I didn't do it.

I've prepared an annotated image which includes three asteroids. One moving very rapidly and two others moving quite slowly. Interestingly all were moving downward one quite rapidly. So much so it was quite faint as its light hit a pixel for less than a minute while the others were on the same pixel for 3 or 4 minutes making them appear much brighter for their magnitude. Also in the annotated image is a quasar marked with a question mark. This is because NED lists it as a star or point source object and lastly as a quasar. Photographic redshifts can be fooled into showing a very wrong value. Apparently, NED feels that might have happened here when they don't even consider it a candidate quasar. One of those is also in the image. Its redshift is spectroscopically determined and it is quite blue so I have a rather high degree of confidence it is a true quasar. There are several galaxy clusters. Two with a bright cluster galaxy that I've used to mark its location and a third without such a galaxy. I just point to the pixel that marks its position at NED though with a diameter of 10 minutes of arc it is hard to say what is a member of the cluster and what isn't as nothing with the right redshift value is in the area. It is ZwCl 1206.9+1842 for those wishing to look it up and try to identify what faint fuzzies in my image belong to it.

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

Related Designations for NGC4147

NGC4151

NGC 4151 is one of two galaxies studied in the paper that introduced the concept of Seyfert Galaxies so is one of the most researched galaxies in the sky. So this text is rather long. Yet when I searched for it I found very few amateur images of this rather spectacular galaxy. Why amateurs ignore one of the most important galaxies in the sky I have no idea. How studied is it? Well, it has 67 different catalog listings in NED and 78 in SIMBAD. NED lists 52 detailed notes from papers on it, most major galaxies have a dozen or so. SIMBAD lists 2901 references for it. I didn't begin to explore them all. But for all these papers we seem to have a really poor understanding of how far it is from us. I found at least a dozen different distance estimates ranging from about 13 million to nearly 100 million light-years for this galaxy. NED puts its redshift at 57 million light-years while a mean of 7 non-redshift measurements says 22 million light-years. NASA has a nice write up on it that says 43 million light-years. That write up calls it the Eye of Sauron Galaxy and is at: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/11-029.html#.VUHAhpOrF9s . Then I found this article that claims to have pinned down its distance with an error bar of 10% as 62 million light-years http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/science-distance-eye-sauron-ngc4151-02303.html . With at least 12 different measurements to choose from, roll a dodecahedron die and see what comes up then verify with a Magic 8 ball. I'm going to go with the 62 million light-year figure as it is the only one to even give an error bar with its estimate.

Using the 62 million light-year figure just how big is this galaxy with his expansive outer arm structure. Again I have some major discrepancies. I measure the arms on my image as being about 8.3 minutes across while NED says 6.3. Other sources give other sizes. None as large as my measurement however. Still, I'm quite confident in it as representative of the extent I picked up. That gives a diameter of about 150,000 light-years. Large for a spiral but not out of line with other large spirals. Using NED's diameter it is only about 114,000 light-years. about the size of our galaxy.

It was discovered by William Herschel on March 17, 1787 and is in the original Herschel 400 list. My comment from March 23, 1985 with a 10" f/5 at 150 power under excellent conditions reads "Stellar nucleus with a large outlying area. Bright and easy. Seems far larger than the 2.5' x 1.6' size Burnham's shows. Forms a nice pair with NGC 4145 a half degree to the north." So the size issue goes back a long way. I don't know why I didn't mention NGC 4156 a much closer companion in my image. Was it too faint for me? NGC 4145 was also found by William Herschel but isn't in either Herschel 400 listing. I have imaged it back in 2013. It appears slightly disturbed and has a similar redshift to NGC 4151 and a non-redshift distance of 67 million light-years, within the 10% range of the 62 million light-year estimate for 4151. They may be related and possibly have interacted in the distant past but I can't find anything on this.

NGC 4151 is a very photogenic galaxy that amateurs have virtually ignored. I can't understand why. The delicate blue streamers mixed into the main disk are quite unique. I've never seen another galaxy quite like it with these fine streams of blue stars that seem to have no connection with a normal spiral pattern, especially at the southeastern end.

The other NGC galaxy in the image is NGC 4156. It is a rather normal looking barred spiral though its two main arms are full of star knots. Like NGC 4151 it has a distance issue. Though a much bigger one. Redshift puts it at 320 million light-years, 5 times more distant than nearby 4151. But NED has ONE non-redshift measurement that comes in at 51 million light-years, a 6 times difference. If the 320 million light-year distance is correct then it is some 120,000 light-years across, a large barred spiral. If the 51 million light-year distance is used then it is only 19,000 light-years across. So is it a dwarf or large spiral? I'm going to go with the 320 million light-year distance as the resolution seems way too low for the closer distance and on par with others I've imaged at that distance. That Asian astronomer Sum Ting Wong has struck again I believe. It too was discovered by William Herschel on March 17, 1787 the same night as he found 4151. He found 4145 the following night or was it the same night after midnight when the others were before midnight? This image is full of unanswered questions it seems.

UGC 7188 is a really messed up galaxy to the east that probably is a companion to NGC 4156. Though one paper calls it a companion of NGC 4151 with a distance of 57 million light-years. I don't know how that was determined. Maybe it just assumes it's redshift is the same. I don't know. But for such a highly studied area all these discrepancies seems unusual.

On the north edge of UGC 7188 at a position midway between two blue somethings NED says another galaxy with HII emission is to be found. It gives a similar redshift to that of UGC 7188. I think it likely is just a pair of star knots in the galaxy buried in HII and not really a separate galaxy.

There are many other interesting things in the image some cause me to wonder what the... Above UGC 7188 are two galaxies listed at NED from the MDS (HST Medium Deep Survey) In my image as well as the Sloan image they show as stars. No detail at all yet NED lists one as a peculiar spiral and the other as an E0 with debris. How was that possible from images that look just like stars? Also, I thought I was being rather silly using the term debris for the stars spilled out by galaxy collision and here NED is using the term! But no hint of spiral structure or debris was seen. So I went to the HST image. There the lower is certainly a spiral the core seems off center which may have earned it the pec label. The northern galaxy is much smaller, just barely larger than a star in fact but extremely saturated. When I stretched the image something is seen to the south. I can't tell if it is another galaxy or a stream of debris but it looks more like another galaxy to my eye. Down and to the right is a larger galaxy with obvious debris that was too faint to show on my image. So at least I know NED was using the HST image to classify these to otherwise points of light.

To the southwest of NGC 4151 is a quasar at 11.53 billion light-years that NED lists as having DLyA characteristics. These are rather rare I think as it is the first I've come across in all the years I've been annotating images. It stands for Damped Lyman Alpha. You can read about what the heck that is at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damped_Lyman-alpha_system

Another quasar in the image, this one north of NGC 4151 at only 5.85 billion light-years, is listed as being a BLLAC. This stands for a BL Lacertae-type object. They are often considered not to be quasars but a step or so below quasars in activity level. They lack the broad emission lines that characterize quasars. Though NED often calls them quasars. You can read more about this at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BL_Lac_object

Several galaxies are sitting behind clouds of transparent gas. We know they are there as they add dark lines to the spectrum but with a lesser redshift indicating they aren't associated with the quasar as opposed to DLyA clouds. I've listed both the distance to the galaxy and to the AbLS (the gas cloud with the initials for Absorption Line System). These all are just west (right) of NGC 4151.

To the northeast of NGC 4151 is a tight trio of galaxies. So tight they overlap in my image. The two southern ones have redshift values that put them 2.37 billion light-years distant. They have only one designation each at NED and it is long starting with NGC 4151. I listed both on the same annotation with one distance. The northern member had no redshift data.

Now for another mystery. NGC 4151 is listed at NED as being the center of the NGC 4151/WBl 383 galaxy group of 16 galaxies with a redshift distance of 190 million light-years. Now how can a group be at a distance over 3 times that of the galaxy it is named for? Not only that one single galaxy in the image has a redshift or any other determined distance of even close to 190 million light-years. I've not a clue to this one!

Nothing like imaging one of the most studied galaxies of all time (besides our own local group) and finding all these issues. I expected this one to be super easy and it has taken me many days to figure all this out and I'm far from finding answers, just more questions.

The first night I tried for this one I got three good luminance frames then was clouded out. I succeeded the second night so have 7 luminance frames rather than my normal 4. Probably helped a bit to bring out the arms but conditions that first night were poor for transparency so I doubt those three were of much help. I know they degraded resolution a bit but hope it was worth it to get slightly more of the faint arms.

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

Related Designations for NGC4151

NGC4157

NGC 4157 is a very large, near edge-on spiral galaxy in eastern Ursa Major on the border with Canes Venatici. In fact, the very faint eastern extension of the galaxy lies in Canes Venatici. NED and most others classify it as SAB(s)b?. It was discovered by William Herschel on March 9, 1788 and is in the second H400 program showing not all the "good ones" are in the first 400. They saved some for the second. While my notes from the second are lost my notes from the first, indicate I was wondering why some losers were in the first list when some like this one weren't. I measure it at about 150,000 light-years across making it a huge spiral. It likely would be spectacular seen face on though I suspect it may not have as bright a surface brightness as say M51 or others in this part of the sky. While redshift puts it at 45 million light-years distant other measurements average out to 54 to 55 million light-years. Most sources I saw say it is likely at least this distant. Some say it is a bit further away which makes it even larger than my 150,000 light-year estimate. For such a nice galaxy I was surprised how few amateur images I found of it. I assume the two faint extensions, most easily seen to the upper left, are due to faint, widely extended arms rather than plumes. If so it might be more a SAB(s)c or even SAB(s)d galaxy if seen face-on.

Also interesting are two possible companions to its south. DDO 111 is a blue galaxy, a bit further out than was expected when the catalog was made if the redshift is right. It certainly is a blue but a star poor irregular galaxy about 25,000 light-years across. It is classified as an irregular Magellanic galaxy much like the two Magellanic clouds near our galaxy. Is it seen edge-on or is it really long and thin? It appears slightly warped as well. For some reason, it carries two PGC numbers 38767 and 38781. Nearby at the same redshift is a dwarf S0 galaxy only about 11,000 light-years in size. Their projected separation is only 65,000 light-years. Likely they are considerably further apart or more distortion would be seen in both.

Also in their area is the distant galaxy cluster of GMBCG J182.80962+50.30621. Most of its galaxies have a redshift distance of 3.85 to 3.87 billion light-years. Just under NGC 4157 is another galaxy cluster, GMBCG J182.79448+50.42954 at 4.58 billion light-years. At least that's the distance to its bright cluster galaxy. No other galaxies in the group were listed with redshift distance, likely due to its great distance making most too faint.

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

Related Designations for NGC4157

NGC4163

NGC 4163/NGC4167 is a dwarf starburst galaxy that is part of the Ursa Major group just west of the far better known and larger dwarf NGC 4214. It is located in western Canes Venatici and about 935 million light-years away. The HST has studied this and a couple other dwarf starburst galaxies. You can read about it at http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/19/full/ Click the "Release Images" tab to see the individual galaxy images. Hubble had no trouble resolving it into stars. My seeing wasn't very good the night I took this, over 3" so I resolved nothing I'm afraid. Maybe on a better night. While redshift puts it at 20 million light-years this method isn't reliable for such short distances. Study of the individual stars, especially the tip of the red giant branch gives the more reliable estimate of 9.3 to 9.5 million light-years. I show both (HST determination in parentheses) in the annotated image.

NGC 4163 was discovered by William Herschel on April 28, 1785. It isn't in either of the H400 programs. Later on March 11, 1831 his son John recorded it and somehow neither he nor Dreyer realized it was the same object. That's how it got the NGC 4167 identification in the NGC.

West of NGC 4163 is the galaxy cluster WHL J121144.6+360943 with 23 members in the proverbial unknown area. The photographic redshift for the cluster puts it at 3.5 billion light years but the spectroscopic measurement of the BCG at its heart says 3.6 billion light-years which is likely more accurate. Quite a few faint fuzzies are seen in the area that are likely members but none anywhere near as big and bright as the BCG of the same name as the cluster.

The galaxy cluster at the bottom of the image just right of center is GMBCG J182.98714+36.02587 at a photographic redshift of 4.3 billion light years. The same photographic redshift is reported for the BGC.

The NSCS J121108+360614 galaxy cluster to the southwest has no core galaxy. It is listed as having 44 members but no radius is given. Many faint fuzzies are in the area, however. I assume many to be cluster members. The annotated image denotes the center of the cluster as defined in NED. The error circle is 15 arc seconds so the center is rather ill-defined compared to my line. Then all this got blown out of the water when I noticed WHL J121105.2+360656, another galaxy cluster less than a minute of arc away. It is said to have 11 members in that same unknown radius at a photographic redshift of 3.4 billion light-years. So which are which of which cluster is now something unknown to me. This group does have a galaxy at the cluster's core position (well in the center of its 15 arc second error radius. But it isn't listed as a cD (cluster dominant or center dominant are corrupt definitions but work here) or BGC (Brightest Galaxy in the Cluster) nor does it have a redshift that I found.

A more correct explanation of cD is that it is part of a galaxy classification system from Yerkes Observatory in which c stands for a very large galaxy while D is used for one that is very diffuse. Since many central galaxies of a cluster are huge and diffuse SO or elliptical galaxies due to having merged with many cluster members they get this classification. But they are also the dominant galaxy in the cluster and usually in the center hence the other uses of the term.

Just when you think things can't get more confusing up pops GMBCG J182.77098+36.11180 BCG at 4.2 billion light-years determined photographically. It is a BCG obviously but where was its cluster? Then I noticed that NSCS J121108+360614 is listed at NED as also being GMBCG J182.77098+36.11180! Note that the name contains the coordinates of the position of the object. The position J182.77098+36.11180 matches that of the BGC, not the cluster's position. Is this an error? The photographically determined distances don't match. About this time I headed for the booze cabinet.

Near the edge of the upper right quadrant are some galaxies at 1.7 billion light-years. Just off the edge of my image is the location of the galaxy cluster MaxBCG J182.68333+36.25398 and its BCG. They are shown at 1.7 billion light years. The cluster has no given radius and 14 members. Some appear to be labeled in my annotated image.

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

Related Designations for NGC4163

NGC4178

NGC 4178 is a rather odd barred spiral in northern Virgo some 33 to 55 million light-years distant. Redshift puts it at 33 million light-years but the mean of Tully Fisher measurements puts it at 55 million light-years. Most agree it is a true member of the Virgo Cluster thus making the Tully Fisher distance most likely the more accurate. Members of the cluster often show high velocities, some so high they are blue shifted. Also, the detail seen not only in my image but those of major scopes is consistent with the greater distance. NED shows it classified as SB(rs)dm HII. With the low redshift H alpha emission would be within the passband of my filter. I intended to take at least one image to see if I'd pick it up in the blue star clouds but the weather never cooperated so that didn't happen. It was discovered by John Herschel on April 11, 1825.

The galaxy has a long central bar and no real central bulge. Only a hint of a spiral arm comes off the southern end of the bar while a weak on comes from the northern bar. Much of its disk is rather featureless with very little spiral structure. The only structure being provided by what appear to be randomly placed star clouds. The galaxy was discovered by John Herschel on April 11, 1825. It is also shown as discovered three-quarters of a century later on September 6, 1900 by the German astronomer, Arnold Schwassmann, and listed as IC 3042. Being quite flat with little central bulge it made the 2 Micron Flat Galaxy Catalog as 2MFGC 09611.

To the southeast is a "small" face on spiral about a billion light-years distant. Thus it is really quite large, about 145,000 light-years across in fact. It's only its great distance that makes it appear small.

I've marked a star-like object as Q? in the annotated image that is south and a bit west of NGC 4178. NED's position has a 10-second error bar for a 21st magnitude quasar. This object is the only thing I see about 21st magnitude (20.7 by my reading) in the area. Certainly, nothing else is in the area that is about that brightness. But it is about 18 seconds from the position shown for the quasar so not in the 10-second error bar. Checking the Sloan image shows nothing within the error bar's range down to 24th magnitude so I've marked the only possible candidate. Still, the entire object may be erroneous so I've labeled it with a question mark for its identification being questionable.

A quasar candidate (QC) is noted only about 1.5 billion light-years distant west of NGC 4178. It's PSF is that of a small disk galaxy, not a quasar. The Sloan image shows a bright core in the center of a faint rather featureless disk galaxy same as my PSF indicates. One catalog at NED does say it is a galaxy, two a quasar and one an Ultraviolet Source. It certainly is some type of AGN but the quasar seems dim for one at that close distance.

Four asteroids snuck into the image. Details are on the annotated image. One was moving very slowly making a very short trail in 40 minutes indicating it was caught just as it was changing from prograde motion to retrograde motion.

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

Related Designations for NGC4178

NGC4183

NGC 4183/FGC 1368 is a near edge on flat galaxy in western Canes Venatici 3.75 degrees south of the far more well-known M106. It is classified as SA(s)cd?. Except for a faint dust lane, I see little spiral structure. I suspect seen face on it may be a very flocculent galaxy being made up of many short arm segments rather than full arms. The two blue objects at the top are large star clusters. This one went on my to-do list as an interesting flat galaxy. While it was discovered by William Herschel on April 14, 1789 it isn't in either of the two H400 observing programs which surprised me. It is about 53 million light-years distant by both redshift and non-redshift measurements. That agreement is unusual. If you look closely you will see it has faint extensions off either end. They are longer on the northern side. I suspect these are faint arms rather than plumes. The nearly doubles its size. Measuring the obvious bright portion it is about 55 million light-years across but when the faint extensions are included it nearly doubles to over 106,000 light-years in size. Likely a longer exposure than my standard 40 minutes would show it as even larger.

Off the southern end and in the faint extension as a tiny object NED considers a separate galaxy at about the same redshift. I have to wonder if it, like the bright ones to the north isn't just another star cluster in the galaxy. If that side is rotating toward us that might explain the small redshift difference. Even assuming the closer 49 million light-year distance it is less than 1000 light-years across. Awfully small for a galaxy but not a star cloud. Those in the northern end are larger yet not considered separate galaxies.

This was a night of better than typical for spring transparency so goes down past 23rd magnitude so I picked up and was able to label galaxies down to 6.4 billion light-years distance. One galaxy is labeled from the KISSx catalog. That stands for Kitt Peak National Observatory International Spectroscopic Survey Red spectral region - candidates. The x is for candidates.

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

Related Designations for NGC4183

NGC4214

NGC 4214 is a nearby dwarf galaxy in Canes Venatici with massive star formation regions per the Hubble Space Telescope images of this galaxy. None showed up in my LRGB image. Another I should have used H alpha on apparently. Nor do they show in the Sloan survey image of this galaxy. Being close redshift data is highly unreliable. It gives a distance of about 25 million light-years. 10 to 13 million light-years seems more reasonable given the resolution of details that can be seen in it. Also, this is about the average of modern Tully-Fisher and Red Giant Branch measurements. Assuming a distance of 10 million light-years its diameter would be about 23,000 light-years. It is classed by NED as IAB(s)m and Irr III-IV by the NGC project

It is also known as NGC 4228. Seems John Herschel managed to get the RA one minute wrong one pass and later get it right. This resulted in the two numbers. The 4214 entry was the correct one in case you were wondering.

To the southwest is UGCA 276. While its redshift is the same as that of NGC 4228 I assume it is more likely at about the same distance as NGC 4214 as its non-redshift based measurements are about the same as those for NGC 4214. NED classes it simply as Im: It is likely gravitationally bound to NGC 4214. William found it on April 28, 1785. John found it at the wrong position on April 27, 1827. It is in neither of the H400 programs.

I've prepared my usual annotated version of the image. As in the past, I accidentally ran across some galaxies, not in NED that should be. Usually, these are blue but not this time. Also, I found far more than usual. Those totally absent from NED are marked with a gray question mark. A couple were picked up by the 2MASS survey but were not included in NED's version of the Sloan survey even though they should have been. These are marked with a green question mark. Again, I didn't go looking for these. I just noticed them while looking up ones nearby that were in the database. How many more were missed I haven't a clue. Apparently, the automatic algorithm that is used to pick these up failed somehow.

Two galaxy clusters are in the image. WHL J121610.0+362836 at 3.6 billion light-years is to the northeast of NGCV 4214. The anchor galaxy's position is the same as that of the cluster but NED only had redshift data on the cluster. It is small containing only 6 galaxies. No size was given. The other is GMBCG J184.02151+36.15300 at 4.4 billion light-years. Here the Big Cluster Galaxy's redshift matches that given for the cluster. It is nearly directly south of the first cluster at the very bottom of my image. I moved the label off to the side so as not hide a few possible cluster members. The cluster is listed as having 39 members but again no diameter is given for the cluster's size.

The image contains more very distant galaxies than usual with nearly all being over 1 billion light-years away with a couple over 5 billion light-years away. Quasars are even further of course.

HST info
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2011/14/

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

Related Designations for NGC4214

NGC4216

This field was taken not because it is rarely seen but because of the Herschel 400 object, NGC 4216 and it is a great field. NGC 4216 is an Sab(s)b: galaxy with HII emission and LINER properties indicating an active nucleus. It is considered a member of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies. It's distance, however, is rather vague. Virgo Cluster galaxies have large orbital velocities making cosmological redshift useless as some of these values range from way too high a redshift for the accepted 50 to 60 million light-year distance to even a few that are blue shifted. NGC 4216 is listed by APOD at 40 million light-years. Several sources say it is near the center of the cluster but that is thought to be some 50 to 60 million light-years distant. Non-redshift values at NED are all greater than the 40 million light-year figure. To me its resolution both in my image and others is more akin to a 50 to 60 million light-year distance though this galaxy is considered rather anemic in that star formation is low and its supply of HI is also low. Note its rather red color indicating few young stars even far out in the arms. Still, I'll bow to the experts and say it is 40 million light-years distant. That makes it about 100,000 light-years in size. It has a close companion with similar redshift, VCC 0165. It has an odd curving plume to the northwest indicating it is interacting with NGC 4216.

As I stacked the frames an odd faint spike of light came in at an odd angle. Straight as an arrow it had to be a reflection but those come in perpendicular to the edge, not at an angle. Then my sleeping brain (it was 1 a.m.) finally woke up. A quick check turned up Ken Crawford's APOD showing a huge looping star stream. http://imagingdeepsky.com/Galaxies/NGC4216/NGC4216.htm Also this version http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/411099-the-galaxies-star-streams-ngc4216-and-ngc4449 Both of these used many many hours and I'd only used 40 minutes of luminance. Still, I picked up some of it. Then I looked at the log entry my system makes and saw I had planned on at least 4 rounds of data over 4 nights but the system got clouded out and never completed it. That's the problem with processing months later, I forget things like this.

NGC 4216 is the only galaxy in this field that is in either Herschel 400 list, being in the original. My comment from April 20, 1985 using my 10" f/5 on an only fair night at 100x reads simply "Large, nearly edge-on galaxy with a bright center." Usually, I wrote more than that. Humidity was high and transparency low according to my notes. William Herschel found it the night of April 17, 1784. Later Arnold Schwassmann found it on September 14, 1900. That got the IC3064 listing.

The other two NGC galaxies in the image are also Herschel discoveries. NGC 4206 on the same night as NGC 4216 and NGC 5222 a few days earlier on April 8, 1784. You might wonder how he could find 4222 and miss 4216 a much bigger and brighter galaxy. His scope was extremely difficult to use compared to what we are used to. He'd point it to a declination and record what he saw drift by. A clock gave him the RA as it crossed the center and the declination of the center of his field was known to make declination easier to estimate. Also, his field of view was tiny compared to what we are used to. NGC 4222 was just too far north and likely near the southern edge of his field that pass. The other two would be caught when he could map the strip one field south a few nights later.

NGC 4206 is a flat galaxy meeting the lesser qualifications of the 2 micron flat galaxy catalog. It is a Sa(s)bc: galaxy with a LINER active core. Redshift puts it about 48 million light-years distant while non-redshift measurements place it further away. So is it close to 4216 or not? I have no idea. Assuming it is 50 million light-years away it is about 90,000 light-years in diameter.

NGC 4222 has a similar redshift as NGC 4216 and a wide range of non-redshift values putting it more distant than NGC 4216. Still, it's similar redshift may indicate it is gravitationally linked to 4216 so I'm going to assume it too is about 40 million light-years distant. That makes it the smallest of the three at 40,000 light-years across. It is flatter than 4222 and thus makes the Flat Galaxy Catalog. Seen nearly edge on it is obvious it has only a slight hint of a central bulge. It is listed as an Sc spiral with HII emission.

There is often a 4th galaxy considered part of this group, IC 771 which is listed as a member of the Virgo Cluster Catalog as VCC 142. But its redshift puts it some 280 million light-years distant. While Virgo Cluster Galaxies can have redshifts well beyond their distance this is way too far out of line. No way it is actually a member of the cluster. It is a respectable 60,000 light-years across and is listed as a barred spiral. It was discovered by Rudolf Ferdinand Spitaler on April 1, 1891 using the 68cm refractor at Wien University Observatory. Now known as the University of Vienna and Vienna Observatory. The annotated image shows many other galaxies listed as members of the cluster with even larger redshifts indicating many VCC galaxies are not really members of the cluster but background galaxies. Several of the annotated VCC galaxies carried a second entry in NED without the VCC label. Only one of these is noted. Usually, the non-VCC entry had very vague coordinates, sometimes with an over 4 degree error circle. The one that did agree within a few seconds of arc is listed in the annotated image, otherwise, even though the coordinates match the huge error circle and different redshift value indicated this is only a guess for which galaxy is meant. Most originated from radio galaxy catalogs with a wide beam and thus poor positional information.

One very faint asteroid is marked in the lower right corner. Why I off centered my target galaxy I don't know. Since I was trying for the plume caused by VCC 165 being ripped apart I'd have expected I'd have moved it east rather than west. Maybe I was confused which side of the galaxy it was on. Trying to remember back to April without any note on this fails my memory any more.

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

Related Designations for NGC4216

NGC4217

NGC 4217 is an edge on galaxy often seen in wide field shots of M 106 but deserving of being imaged for itself though this is rarely done for some reason. It is classified at NED as SAb with HII emission. I didn't bring out any of these in the RGB image. At first glance, I thought it looked a bit twisted as there's more to see on the west side than the eastern half. But I think this is due to a spiral arm coming around toward us on the western side that is going away from us on the eastern side. Thus the eastern one is mostly hidden by the galaxy itself. But there may be a twist as well. The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on April 10, 1788. It is in Canes Venatici and about 57 million light-years distant by redshift at 64 million distant by a couple of Tully Fisher measurements. Since it may be a member of the Virgo cluster I'll sort of average the two and call it 60 million light-years. That puts its faint outer reaches at some 125,000 light-years across. Likely its stars extend much further as there's really no edge to a galaxy, the stars just get less and less dense without any clear end. Using the brighter portion it is about 100,000 light-years across. While imaged with M 106 it is nearly 3 times more distant than its famous neighbor so they are not related, just they share about the same line of sight as seen from earth It is in the Herschel 2 observing program but not one I've logged visually for some reason. The nearby bright stars do make this one a bear to process as they sent lots of light flying around.

NGC 4226 is the other NGC galaxy in the image. It is not a companion of either M 106 or NGC 4217 as it lies some 340 million light-years distant and is part of the LDCE 0877 galaxy group. Thus there are several other galaxies at that distance in my image. Thanks to its much greater distance it is the largest galaxy in the image with the bright edge measured to a diameter of 128,000 light-years, more than the faintest extent of NGC 4217. It wasn't seen by William Herschel when he recorded 4217 but was discovered on March 19, 1828, nearly 40 years later by his son John Herschel. It is classed as Sa pec? by most sources. The NGC project says S:... whatever those dots mean. The colon is about the same as a question mark. It has a close, nearly starlike in my image, companion with almost exactly the same redshift.

NGC 4217 was discovered by William Herschel on April 10, 1788. It is in the second H400 program. NGC 4226 was discovered by his son John on March 19, 1828.

The annotated image shows all galaxies NED had listed as galaxies that had a redshift distance estimate. Most interesting of these to me is BTS 109 a dwarf elliptical galaxy with a redshift that likely makes it a companion of M 106. I measure its diameter at only 2,500 light-years. That is indeed a dwarf galaxy and a faint one as well. It's near the eastern (left) edge of my image which puts it about half way between NGC 4217 and M 106.

This was taken the only good night in January though I did capture a few photons of 5 objects a week earlier through questionable skies. Unfortunately, a bright moon rising and clouds moving in prevented me from getting but one frame of red and green. Still, the night was good enough that that was sufficient. Fortunately, I got lucky and there were no satellite trails in the single red and green frames.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RG=1x10' B=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC4217