NGC7260

NGC 7257/7260 is located in northern Aquarius about 200 million light-years distant by redshift measurements. Due to a positional error mid 19th century, it has two numbers. There is no object at the position for NGC 7257 which all now consider a duplicate observation of nearby NGC 7260. It was discovered by Albert Marth on October 1, 1864.

I put this one on my list due to its rather lonely northern arm. There are only two other galaxies in the field with redshift data. Most of the others are from automatic plate surveys. There is an apparent double galaxy to the southwest of NGC 7260. The lower one, 6dF J2222166-041500, has a redshift that puts it at 208 million light-years so it is a member of the same group as NGC 7260. Its companion isn't even listed in NED though there is a plate survey entry for the pair. None of this is any help to determine if it is a true companion or just line of sight. There does appear there's some distortion to both so I'll say they are an interacting pair for now.

The only other galaxy with redshift data is at the far middle right of my image. It is listed as nearly 340 million light-years distant so not likely related to the other two. It is a strong IR emitting galaxy from the 2MASS catalog, 2MASX J22213394-0406426.

There are three asteroids in the image. Each has a very different direction vector. The brightest, 2000 QH176, is moving prograde, that is to the east which is not all that common in my images. The other two are barely moving. I'd not have made an annotated image but for them. They are so nearly star-like and difficult to find I decided an annotated image would be needed to point them out. 2003 SJ32, below NGC 7260 is moving retrograde but so slowly moving west most of its motion is to the north due to it moving up in relation to the plane of the solar system. This likely means it is turning from retrograde to prograde motion. The third one, further east but at about the same declination as the other two is (62308) 2000 SH118 and it to is moving west but mostly south rather than north. So it too is likely at the turn around point. Retrograde motion happens when we pass the slower moving asteroid. While it is moving in the same direction as we are, as we pass it, it will appear to move backward same as the car we pass on a highway appears to move backwards in relation to the very distant background. This false westward motion is called retrograde motion. Once we get so far ahead we are seeing the asteroid on the opposite side of the sun then its forward motion is quite obvious since relative to the background stars we are moving in the opposite direction. Midway between these two points, we see it almost stop in the sky. It would stop if it was in the exact same plane as the earth. Since it won't be, when stopped east to west it will still be moving up or down in relation to our orbital plane and thus move mostly vertically as these two are doing.

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

Related Designations for NGC7260

NGC7261

NGC 7261 is an open cluster in southern Cepheus located about 5500 light-years away according to WEBDA. They place its age at only 47 million years making it a rather young open cluster. So why are the stars only sort of blue? A cluster that young should be full of very blue stars. The reason is it is reddened by nearly a full magnitude by dust in our galaxy that lies between us and the cluster. The cluster is ill-defined, especially at my image scale. I reduced the scale to 1.5" per pixel and it is still rather hard to define. The pros seem to have a problem as well as I found 5', 6', 8' and 10 to 15 minutes for its size. NGC project classifies it as Trumpler class II3m while Seligman says III1p. It was discovered by John Herschel on October 5, 1829.

Professor Harold Corwin says of it: "JH's cluster is probably the scattered group of pretty bright stars, stretching nearly north-south across an area 15' by 10', about 20 seconds preceding his position for the bright star on its following edge. There is a smaller core (7' by 5') of generally fainter stars about five arcminutes north-northeast of the center of the larger group. Is this perhaps a background cluster?"

While the cluster is hard to make out at my image scale it does stand out in very wide field images such as Jim Thommes' image of it and nearby Sharpless 135 that can be found at: http://www.jthommes.com/Astro/Sh2-135.htm .

With no galaxies or asteroids I wasn't going to prepare an annotated image then I found the field contains a rather interesting star-like planetary nebula PN G104+01.0 north of the cluster. I had to label it to allow it to be found. It has a lot of references at SIMBAD, most just catalog entries but some refer to it as containing a large amount of hot dust. That would likely explain its odd color that's very different from what you'd expect a planetary nebula to be. I did find a 1992 paper giving its distance as 10,500 light-years and its diameter as 0.04 light-years. This would indicate it is a very young planetary and explains its star-like appearance. Only the HST can resolve it. I've included an OIII filtered image of it by the HST. The bright stars in the HST image are seen in my image just that most are larger than the planetary in my image while the resolution of the HST makes them much smaller. The nebula itself is overexposed. I didn't try to process the original FITS data. Those interested can find it at the HST Legacy Archive website. The 1992 paper can be found at: http://cdsads.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1992A%26AS...94..399C&db_key=AST&nosetcookie=1

My image contains a very blue star. Often these are listed at SIMBAD a white dwarf stars or turn out to be quasars. Unfortunately, I could find nothing about this blue star. I've noted it in the annotated image along with the planetary nebula.

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

Related Designations for NGC7261

NGC7265

NGC 7265 is an S0^- galaxy in Lacerta about 220 million light-years from us by redshift. It seems to have a lot of spiral structure for an S0- galaxy. It is a very large galaxy with a diameter of some 235,000 light-years assuming the distance is 220 million light-years. It was discovered by Édouard Stephan on September 20, 1876.

To its east is the strange galaxy UGC 12007. The CGCG describes it as a neutral patchy post-eruptive pear-shaped compact with a very extended halo plus jet (southwest) that lies southwest of a bright star. To me, it is a rather typical barred spiral but one with a very extended halo. It's possible the southwest arm is brighter than the northeast one though it could be an illusion due to the bright star. I certainly don't see it is pear-shaped. Its redshift distance is about 210 million light-years. It is likely related to NGC 7265. A past interaction may have caused its large halo and possible the featureless outer ring around NGC 7265.

The edge-on near the top looks like a small version of NGC 891 but with less blue. It is NGC 7264, an Sb spiral with a redshift of 180 million light-years. Still, it could be a member of the same group as NGC 7265, just one that is currently moving rapidly in our direction due to where it is in its orbit. It was found by Albert Marth on September 17, 1863. Much more distant NGC 7263 was also found by Marth but on September 9, 1863.

UGC 12013 near the bottom of the image left of center is classified simply as a spiral and at 230 million light-years is likely a member of the group. A bit more questionable is NGC 7263 to the northwest corner of my image. Its redshift distance of 270 million light-years puts it possibly a bit too far to be a member of the group. The CGCG says of it: "Pair of red fuzzy elliptical with compact disc and neutral spherical compact (or star). Separation = 13 arcsec [south-east] - [north-west]. Spectrum: Absorption: Ca H and K (+ star)." Several other sources consider it a pair of galaxies. Even my database in The Sky says both are NGC 7263. Still, NED lists only one object here and I agree. The PSF of the northwest object is virtually identical to a similarly bright star nearly due west of the object. No known galaxy in the image has a PSF identical to a star in the image. It is listed as S?.

NED shows one galaxy group, USGC U813 with 9 members at 220 million light-years. This has to be the group anchored by NGC 7265 though no diameter is given. Except for 2 LEDA galaxies redshift data isn't available for any of the other members of the group. Since the annotated image wasn't very dense with identifiable galaxies, all that NED did have identified are shown in the annotated image. Most with a ? for distance as it wasn't available.

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

Related Designations for NGC7265

NGC7282

NGC 7282 is a low surface brightness galaxy in southern Lacerta about 190 million light-years from us by redshift and 180 million light-years by the median of Tully-Fisher measurements at NED. Arp had a classification for "wind effects" that this one would seem to fit into nicely. The field is somewhat obscured by dust in our Milky Way which reddens the galaxy and dims it. I have partly compensated for the reddening. It is always a quandary for me, should I leave it as dust-colored and thus red or try and remove the dust to show its "true" color. Since I used spectral types of the stars in NOMAD's database as a color reference and they tend to be reddened by the dust I end up removing some of the red but since the stars are only seen through some, not all the dust the reddening of the galaxy and a few stars aren't fully removed. Nearby stars in front of any dust are then too blue after the adjustment which is applied to the entire image. Also, some parts of the field may contain more dust than others further altering color. Sometimes I leave them red and other times I compensate to some extent. I chose the latter for this image.

NGC 7282 is listed at NED as SB(r)b with a Seyfert 2 active nucleus. The NGC Project says it is SBb while Seligman says SBb?. I don't see the inner ring that NED's classification sees. I suppose it is referring to the inner arm that are quite unsymmetrical about the core. The galaxy appears to have been drawn out by some encounter though no candidate is seen in my image. The only other galaxy with redshift data is CGCG 531-007 to the lower left near the bottom of my image. Redshift puts it at 200 million light-years so it could very well be related to NGC 7282. But it shows no distortion so is very unlikely to be the cause of NGC 7282's distortion. NGC 7282 was discovered by Édouard Stephan on October 2, 1878. I get a major axis size of 167,000 light-years making this a large galaxy. If an interaction is involved then it likely was smaller prior to the event. CGCG 531-007 is much smaller at about 55,000 light-years. The entire field has some faint nebulosity throughout. My exposure times aren't sufficient to bring them out but for a few faint puffs on the eastern (left) side of the image.

Being in the zone of avoidance there's little on this field. In fact, few of the galaxies are listed in NED or SIMBAD at all. With no data on the other galaxies with many not listed at all, I didn't prepare an annotated image. Transparency when taking the blue frames was very poor. Then conditions improved so I tried again but it was a sucker hole. Those two frames were also badly hit. To get usable blue I combined all four attempts.

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

Related Designations for NGC7282

NGC7292

NGC 7292 is an irregular barred galaxy of the Magellanic type (IBm) located in the constellation of Pegasus. Its distance is rather uncertain. Redshift would say 30 million light-years but at this close distance, redshift is highly unreliable. I found three Tully-Fisher measurements saying 35 million light-years. I'm not sure I trust this method for irregular galaxies of low surface brightness like this one but it does appear a more reasonable answer. Ground based Cepheids would pin down the distance if it were as close as 30 million light years. I found none, indicating it likely is further than that. Hubble hasn't studied it that I found other than to take two images in rapid succession, insufficient for this purpose. In fact, this entire field of view has not been studied in any detail at all. NED lists only one other galaxy and no quasars within 15 minutes of arc of this galaxy. This is by far the lowest total I've ever encountered. It is 2MASX J22283347+3022063 and is a very red galaxy in the image just left of the center of NGC 7292 and up nearly 5 minutes. There's a very orange star below it with another very red galaxy slightly below the star. Nothing else within 15 minutes of arc is cataloged that I was able to find at NED. SDSS hasn't surveyed the area. The galaxy was discovered by Édouard Stephan on September 6, 1872. It is classified as IBm? by Seligman, Irr by the NGC Project and IBm by NED.

I have attached the very noisy "discovery" image from Hubble as it shows the two star clouds at either end of the bar and little else. Not all Hubble images are destined for APOD it appears.

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

Related Designations for NGC7292

NGC7296

NGC 7296 is a small open cluster, in Lacerta, almost lost in the background of the Milky Way. It was on my list as a Herschel 400 object. I take those when nothing better is within my meridian limits. Even visually I found it rather lost in the Milky Way. My Herschel 400 entry, made June 14, 1985, reads: "Small cluster, nearly drown out by a very rich Milky Way. Where does the writer come up with the '2 degrees east of Beta' (statement) when it's less than 1 degree east?" I went on about this error as I was pointing 2 degrees east and seeing nothing until I realized that position didn't match the given coordinates. When I used the coordinates it was easy to find. Apparently, I wasn't happy with the time it cost me looking the wrong place for it.

Herschel recorded this one twice it appears, once with wrong coordinates. Thus it carries two NGC numbers 7295 and 7296. However, Seligman has a different idea. He says NGC 7296 was William's discovery on October 14, 1787 but says 7295 was found by John on November 8, 1831. Seligman makes no comment about a second William observation of it. Oddly SIMBAD doesn't list an entry for 7295. When the POSS server uses NGC 7295 when you ask for NGC 7296 but points a couple minutes south of the correct position.

I found little on this object. WEBDA indicates it is about 9550 light-years distant and very young at an age of about 100 million years. The Sky lists the bright orange star in the cluster as being only 153 light-years distant so not a cluster member. The Sky didn't list distances to any other stars in the area of the cluster.

NED does list a few galaxies in the area but without distance data. I've shown those it listed in the reduced annotated image.

My blue data was severely hurt by haze that cleared for the other colors. I had to compensate with a far larger factor than I normally would use. Color is therefore somewhat suspect.

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

Related Designations for NGC7296

NGC7303

NGC 7303 is a very strange galaxy in northwestern Pegasus about 150 million light-years distant by redshift, 160 million by the median of Tully Fisher measurements. It is a LINER galaxy so has a very active nucleus. If the strange shape and all the activity is due to an interaction it is something it ate as it has no companions in its area that NED came up with. Though this area is not well represented in any database I have. It is very spider or crab looking which reminds me of a Shadow ship from the Babylon 5 SciFi series. NED lists it as S? while the NGC project says it is Sbc. It was discovered by Guillaume Bigourdan on August 24, 1884.

The only other galaxy in the field with redshift distance is the very open, two arm spiral UGC 12071. It is over a half billion light-years distant so unrelated to NGC 7303. Its color is strange with sharply defined reddish areas that change to blue without apparent reason. Makes the color look splotchy. As there's no hint of color issues any other place in the image I have to think it really is this way. At least until I can find skies suitable for retaking the color. Maybe next year.

The only other NGC listing in the field is for NGC 7304 which is considered as nonexistent by the NGC project. Even its "discoverer", Heinrich d'Arrest, was unable to find it again. Some say it is the nearby group of stars but the NGC project says those are invisible in scopes even larger than that used to "discover" it in the first place. The UGC says "Reinmuth identifies NGC 7304 with a star 3' north following this galaxy." That would likely be the brightest of the stars near the position shown in my annotated image though NED itself says "Three galactic stars. NGC identification is very uncertain."

Only 5 other galaxies are noted in NED. All from the 2MASS survey and none with much information let alone redshift data or magnitude estimates. I've labeled them in the annotated image for what that is worth. One looks like a star in my image. It even looks like a star to me in the Sloan image. NED lists it both as a star and as a galaxy. Many other galaxies, some interesting looking, are seen in the field but I was unable to turn up anything on them as interesting as their appearance.

Transparency was poor and I kept trying over and over for usable luminance frames having grabbed color data on a night of poor seeing but sort of usable transparency. In all, I took some 16 luminance frames. Three were so poor I threw them out. But by including the rest I got better results than sorting further. Though if I used the four sharpest there was more detail in bright areas but fainter regions were totally lost. Using only the lesser images picked up faint regions but lost the detail. Best was use them all and miss the finest detail so that's what you get. This one is so interesting looking it deserves better.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=13x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC7303

NGC7309

NGC 7309 is another galaxy Arp could have included in his Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. One of his categories is 3 armed spirals. He just included 3, only one being NGC 145 the others being fainter, smaller and difficult to see in detail. To me, none are as well qualified as NGC 7309 for this category. Why he chose to omit it yet include the others I don't know. NGC 7309 is located in Aquarius and is about 170 million light-years distant. It is a very nice face on barred spiral. Two arms come off the short bar with the third pretty much on its own. A spur seems to come off near its southern end. It was discovered by William Herschel on November 28, 1785. It isn't in either of the H400 projects.

Being near the zone of avoidance the field hasn't been studied very well. Only four galaxies have redshift data available plus one rather nearby quasar. None of these other galaxies have been classified. There are many other galaxies in the field, just that they haven't been studied very much. I'd not have bothered with such a sparse annotated image but for the 5 asteroids in the image. Details are in the annotated image.

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

Related Designations for NGC7309

NGC7311

NGC 7311 and 7312 are two spiral galaxies seen against the distant galaxy cluster, Abell 2454. The field is "above" the neck of Pegasus the horse that flies upside down in our northern skies. The cluster is about 2 billion light-years distant while the two galaxies are much closer and unrelated to each other. NGC 7311 a blue spiral is only 190 million light-years distant while NGC 7312 is about twice as distant at 360 million light-years by redshift and 440 million light-years by Tully-Fisher measurement. Both appear about the same size in my image but due to distance differences that is only an illusion. I measure NGC 7311 as being about 100,000 light-years across and NGC 7312 as being 163,000 to 200,000 light-years across depending on which distance you use.

NGC 7311 was discovered by William Herschel on August 30, 1785. It isn't in either Herschel 400 observing program. NGC 7312 was discovered 76 years later by Albert Marth on October 30, 1863. A near Halloween galaxy. It is appropriately rather orange in color compared to NGC 7311.

Only a handful of galaxies in the Abell 2454 galaxy cluster had redshift data. All had only coordinate based names which I omitted as anyone can plate solve my image and get their coordinates if need be. All but one in the very lower right corner appear to be members of the Abell cluster. Are all those without distance data also members of the cluster? Abell didn't so much worry about distance. He assumed that those within a couple magnitudes of the third brightest galaxy he saw as a cluster were members. NED lists it as being some 20 minutes of arc across. With the center being toward the top of my 22 minute high frame I assume I caught all at the south end of the cluster but am missing many north of my image. In fact, NED lists several members out of my frame to the north. It is listed as morphology class III meaning it has no central galaxy or galaxies which is obvious with nothing around its core position which is just left of the label in my annotated image. It is a class II cluster. By Abell's system that means it contains 50 to 79 members that meet the brightness limits mentioned above.

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

Related Designations for NGC7311

NGC7321

NGC 7321 is a barred spiral in which the two arms that come off the bar appear to form a bright ring. Look closely and you can see the ring ends are slightly further from the core when the meet the start of the ring from the other bar. Often there's little beyond a ring of this type but that's not true with this galaxy. There are arms well beyond the ring. They may come off the inner ring though some sources say they don't. I'm leaning toward the idea they don't come from the ring but you be the judge. The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on November 17, 1784. It isn't in either of the first two Herschel 400 programs.

NED has issues with this field. When I searched for galaxies with redshift data in the image it returned only NGC 7321 and nothing else. I then asked for anything with a redshift value in the image and it came up with many. I've never seen a glitch like this but sometimes when it returns nothing but the galaxy I'm imaging I rarely look further. Why I did this time I don't know. The galaxies it did list once I removed the search rules are all very distant. None had a magnitude, all have verified spectroscopic redshift values, the "s" in the annotation. Most were 5 billion light-years distant or more. One listed as a galaxy appears to really be a quasar. I've annotated it as G? as I doubt I could see any galaxy at over 10 billion light-years. Also, it appears to be a point source in my image without any hint of galactic "fuzz". It is southwest of NGC 7321. To the northwest of NGC 7321 is another object at about 11 billion light-years. NED identifies it one place as a quasar and another as an ultraviolet source. Quasars are often bright in ultraviolet light but the UvS designation would indicate there's some question about it. There are several rather bright galaxies in the field that may be related to NGC 7321 but none had redshift data. Some of the fainter ones aren't listed in NED at all much to my surprise when it covers far fainter ones. The few I could identify are included but without redshift data as that wasn't available.

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

Related Designations for NGC7321