ARP134

Arp 134 is a galaxy very familiar to amateur astronomers being it is one of the biggest and brightest galaxies in the sky and looks perfectly normal to the eye and in most photos. I'm talking about the giant elliptical galaxy M49. So why would a perfectly normal elliptical make the list? Seems it is eating its companion UGC 07636. It is in Arp's classification as "Elliptical or elliptical-like galaxies; with nearby fragments", Arp had no comment on this one. UGC 07636 is the "fragment." Apparently, he thought it part of M49 rather than an appetizer as he didn't give it an identification and most Arp lists don't include it as part of Arp 134 even though it is. In my shot, it is the blue splat like feature on the "front" of M49. Looks to me like where a blue phaser is hitting the Enterprise's shields and the energy is being spread across the shields. Notice the blue stars ripped from the galaxy spreading into M 49 or at least appearing to do so. In a black and white photo like you normally see this contrast is lost. M49 was first recorded by Charles Messier on February 19, 1771.

There are a lot of other NGC galaxies in the image. Considering we are looking at the heart of the Virgo Cluster this isn't surprising. NGC 4464 (E3) is at the top of the image a bit right of center. It was discovered by William Herschel on December 28, 1785. NGC 4465 (Sc) is much nearer Arp 134 on the very edge of its halo at 2 o'clock, just under a small blue star. It is rather small with little detail as it is 5 or 6 times farther away at 351 million light years and thus not a member of the Virgo cluster. It was discovered by Guillaume Bigourdan on March 31, 1886. NGC 4467 (E2) is even closer to Arp 134 and thus within the fainter outer halo at the 3 o'clock position just left of a rather bright blue star. It was discovered by Otto Struve on April 28, 1851. NGC 4471 is often equated with. At the very bottom of my image barely left of NGC 4471 is often considered the same as PGC 41185. This is highly unlikely. Its discoverer was Julius Schmidt on July 29, 1861. His scope was most likely incapable of seeing this galaxy. His position is halfway between the two stars below and a bit left of the galaxy. They are bright enough for him to have seen them both. Which he considered the galaxy is unknown but it is most likely safe to say NGC 4471 is just a star. See the annotated image. NGC 4470 (Sa?) is another confusing entry. It was discovered by William Herschel on January 23, 1784. He measured its position in relation to a Messier galaxy but used the wrong one so got the position quite wrong. This led to it being entered into the NGC as NGC 4610. Later on December 28, 1785 he found it again getting the position correct. That resulted in the NGC 4470 entry.

Notice how all these members of the cluster are far smaller than M49. That's because M49 is a giant among galaxies and one of the anchor galaxies whose gravity holds the cluster together (along with the dark matter of course). One other NGC galaxy is trying to get into the image. You see the western side of its halo at the far left. Normally it is a star on the edge of my CCD that is making a glaring entrance to the image. Here we just see the outer halo of NGC 4492, most of which is out of the frame. So this time the "glare" is real not just a reflection. It too was discovered by William Herschel on December 28, 1785. None of the three William Herschel found are in either observing program.

The spiral galaxy in the lower right corner is PGC 41107/CGCG 042-125 Sb(r) It isn't a cluster member being at 350 million light years and thus likely in a group with NGC 4465 mentioned earlier. Nearer to Arp 134 almost on a line to its core from CGCG 042-125 is the weirdly named VIII Zw 189 (E0) and it is a member of the cluster.

Arp's 200" photo of this galaxy is at:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/frames.html
It has south up rather than north up as for my photo. UGC 7636 is at the upper right in his blue light image of the system. Since the halo is rather lacking in blue light it barely shows in his image but UGC 7636 being very blue shows strongly. A color CCD image gives a more natural look at the situation than does a film image taken in one color.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=6x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP134

ARP135

Arp 135, NGC 1023 is also the namesake of a galaxy group -- the NGC 1023 group of course. It is close by at only about 20 million light years by redshift and 35 million light-years by Tully fisher measurements. So it is right in our backyard! The galaxy is 45 to 75 million light-years across depending one which distance estimate is used.

Arp classed this one under "Elliptical or Elliptical Like Galaxies with Nearby Fragments". Arp 135 would be "elliptical like" as it is actually an SB0 galaxy. SB for barred spiral (we are looking right down the bar so it isn't very obvious) and the 0 means there is little to no dust and gas remaining in the galaxy -- the same as an elliptical galaxy. Without dust and gas, there can be little to no star formation so the stars are all old ones. Since blue stars are short-lived there can be few if any in a galaxy without star formation going on. This is why the galaxy is a yellowish orange color, the color of stars that have a long enough lifespan to still be around after star formation ceased. The "fragment" Arp refers to is NGC 1023A, the blue object at the left end of the galaxy. It is classed as a blue irregular galaxy with a question mark indicating this is not a firm classification. It has a somewhat different redshift than the part of Arp 135 "behind" it so likely really is a separate galaxy. I say behind as that's what it looks like. It may well be in front of it. In any case, it is moving away from us faster than Arp 135 so if it is in front a collision may be in the future.

It is one of the 8 galaxies in the cluster in any case. The blue color would indicate interaction with Arp 135 is likely triggering the star formation. Arp 135 appears to have lost its dust and gas at least a couple billion years ago so would have little to contribute to this object making it unlikely it is just part of Arp 135, its differing redshift would also indicate this. The other members of the group in my image are also quite blue. They are NGC 1023B (classed simply as a dwarf galaxy) further left of 1023 and almost hidden under a very bright star. The 4th member is the dwarf spiral looking galaxy NGC 1023D (also classed as a dwarf with no mention of it being a spiral) near the bottom edge of the image directly below Arp 135. Even its core appears blue, probably why it is not considered a spiral. Why these galaxies have so much star formation still possible while Arp 135 doesn't is not explained in any of the literature I consulted. In case you are wondering NGC 1023C is out of the frame above Arp 135, it too is classed as a dwarf. I didn't look up the other members since they all were out of frame. All 8 fit in an area of space of 6 million cubic light-years.

Arp's comment on this one reads: "Similar nebulosity about one diameter further east." This apparently refers to NGC 1023B. Is he trying to say it too might be a "fragment" of NGC 1023? It certainly is similar to the 1023A.

NGC 1023 was discovered by William Herschel on October 18, 1786 and is in the original Herschel 400 observing program. My notes from that on September 10, 1985 with my Cave 10" f/5 at up to 180x reads: "Large galaxy with nearly round bright core and an even brighter (but not starlike) nucleus. It is surrounded by a faint highly oval outer halo."

Arp's Palomar telescope view of it is at:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp135.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP135

ARP136

Arp 136 is an SO galaxy seen nearly edge on that has a blue tidal plume on its eastern end. It appears surrounded in a faint halo of blue stars as well. Is this a plume or the remains of some dwarf galaxy it has eaten? Plume seems the favored explanation though there's little on this. Arp classed it under Elliptical and elliptical-like galaxies with nearby fragments. I assume the plume is the fragment. I don't see anything else that qualifies. Arp's comment; "Faint streamer off one end of E galaxy." I assume the E means the east end of the galaxy as Arp 136 is a single galaxy. It is considered paired with another to the NE but it isn't included in Arp's image and would be more northeastern in any case. There could be a faint stream running from Arp 134 to the northeastern companion. Or it might be noise from that horrid double star. Also, the obvious puff of stars off the eastern end may, in fact, be an entirely separate galaxy. In the color pushed SDSS image it has a very strong blue color compared to Arp 136. Though there's no separate designation for it that shows up in NED. If so and if the faint possible stream is just noise then there's little evidence of interaction between the two. I can't find anything on this, however. When I push the color as I have in this image I too get a blue color to this plume so I believe it real and likely a colliding dwarf galaxy that was gas-rich so capable for forming new stars when the gas is compressed by the collision.

Arp 136 is NGC 5820 and is located about 160 million light-years away based on its redshift though a note in NED says it is 69 megaparsecs distant which would be about 225 million light-years based on a different redshift value. Why they are so far apart I don't know. The average of two Tully-Fisher measurements agree with the redshift distance. It is located in northern Bootes just about to the Draco border. It was discovered by William Herschel on May 5, 1788.

It is paired with NGC 5821 which has a similar redshift also indicating a distance of about 160 million light-years. It seems a bit distorted but I see no tidal plume. Still, it is a possible cause of Arp 136's plume (if one really exists). The little SO like galaxy just south of NGC 5821 is SDSS J145901.42+535411.1 is the third member of the Arp 136 system as it is a dwarf galaxy also at about 160 million light-years. It was also discovered by William Herschel but nearly a year later on April 24, 1789. Neither it nor NGC 5820 are in either of the two Herschel 400 observing programs.

The spiral directly south of Arp 136 with a foreground star almost on top of it is SBS 1457+540 at 360 million light-years. To the southeast of Arp 136 is the small round galaxy SDSS J145849.34+535216.0 at one billion light-years. Continuing southeast about the same distance you come to SDSS J145856.52+535149.7 at 1.25 billion light-years. The tiny galaxy just north of Arp 136 is SDSS J145838.29+535354.0 also at one billion light-years distance.

The little SO like galaxy just south of NGC 5821 is SDSS J145901.42+535411.1 which is the third member of the Arp 136 system as it is a dwarf galaxy also at about 160 million light-years.

The large galaxy southwest of Arp 136 is UGC 09632, a SAd spiral about 150 million light-years distant and thus likely a member of Arp 136's group. Its arm structure is rather muted though I see no tidal features. The puffball of a galaxy off of its northwest end is SDSS J145751.63+534755.7 at 1.1 billion light-years. The galaxy just below UGC 09632 is SDSS J145753.64+534602.5 at 145 million light-years so it is likely a dwarf member of the group.

After so many galaxies about 145 to 160 million light-years you might think there's a cluster here and in fact, there is. It is ZwCl 1457.5+5415 with some 245 members with the diameter of 3.7 degrees. It is centered on the odd spiral galaxy at the top of my image. But appearances can be deceiving. The spiral with the very weird spiral arms is SDSS J145902.19+540428.7 and is about 1 billion light-years distant by redshift. It appears this cluster is really several unrelated galaxy clusters as many other galaxies in this image are about 1 billion light-years distant.

The galaxy just above the brilliant double star is PGC 053553. I find no redshift data on it. The double star made this a processing nightmare is two main sequence F1 stars of 6.9 and 7.6 magnitude. They carry the designation WDS SHJ 191. Hipparcos says the upper fainter one is 347 light-years distant while the brighter is 383 light-years away. Thus they appear unrelated. I need to invest in newer filters with better anti-reflection coatings than these. Bright stars really are a problem.

SDSS image
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj229/Astronomerica/SDSS-48/NGC5820-SDSS.jpg

Arp's image
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp136.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10 RGB=2x10, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME
Imaged April 29, 2009 UTC

Related Designations for ARP136

ARP137

Arp 137/NGC 2914 is the other peculiar galaxy in the image just to the southeast (lower left) of Arp 232. It falls under Arp's category of Elliptical and Elliptical-like Galaxies: Material emanating from elliptical galaxies. It does have a plume of material coming off the south end and a small faint one off the northern end. Arp's image makes it look like there's an odd hook like arm coming off the northern side as well. I don't know which he is referring to. In my image that northern "hook" is seen as a continuous ring-like structure, or is it a one-armed spiral? Also of interest is the very high proper motion of a star near the "bright" star to the east of Arp 137. In Arp's image, it is northwest of the "bright" star while some 45 years or so later it has moved to the south-southwest of it. I've marked it as HPM in the annotated image. William Herschel found this galaxy on March 3, 1786.

Arp 232/NGC 2911 turned out more interesting than I thought it would be when I was looking at the raw data and Arp's image. Arp put it in his category: Galaxies (not classifiable as S or E); Appearance of fission. I really don't see it in either his image or mine but it sure does have some interesting dust lanes. Two linear ones that make an X near the core rather similar to NGC 660 just not as spectacular. Another forms an arc. Could it be the cause of his fission category? Arp did comment on the larger linear dust lane saying "Absorption lane reaching away from galaxy." It barely shows in his image. I don't see the other dust lanes in his image. Note that Dennis Webb's webpage puts this one in the concentric rings category. He tells me that from Arp's notes it was ambiguous which category it belonged in. He thought it looked more like concentric rings was the right category and put it there for the web page. Later researching this one for their book Dennis contacted Arp who told him it belonged in the fission category. That is what the book shows but the webpage hasn't been updated as of the time I am typing this.

Arp 232 is NGC 2911 and is part of a group of galaxies that includes 3 other NGC objects though one is subject to debate. One of the others is also an Arp galaxy as well though I didn't realize it at the time. Nor did I realize it a month later when I took it though that data is not as good so I'm going with this image. It was discovered by William Herschel on March 11, 1784. Like the other one in this image, he found it isn't in either of the Herschel 400 observing programs.

Arp 232 is classed as SA(s)0:pec;Sy LINER by NED and the NGC Project. NED puts it about 155 million light years distant by its red shift. All that dust is very unusual for an S0 galaxy as is the very distorted shape of its outer envelope. While I found nothing on it, it does appear to me it interacted with or ate a companion. Something had to trigger the Seyfert and LINER activity of its nucleus. I didn't see anything indicating it was interacting with Arp 137 but certainly that galaxy has had a run in with some other galaxy to create its southern plume and odd arm structure. Arp 137 is classed as SB(s)ab by NED and and the NGC project. So none of them see the arm as a ring like I was thinking. It's nearly identical red shift puts it at 160 million light years making the separation between the two at about 225 thousand light years if they were at the same distance from us. Close enough I'd suspect some interaction.

To add to the oddities in this image there's a star-like object just off the NE arm of Arp 137. NED identifies it as SDSS J093403.79+100646.8 saying it is part of Arp 137. It isn't a star, that is certain. Its point spread function (how its light is distributed) shows it to have an angular size and not just a point source like a star. But is it truly part of Arp 137? I don't think so. The galaxy shows no hint of star clusters at my resolution. For there to be a single one making this bright blob and for it to be just off the side of the "ring" doesn't seem reasonable. Adding to the confusion NED, while saying it is part of Arp 137 with a redshift of 160 million light years gives this object a redshift that puts it 1.8 billion light years distant. Far beyond Arp 137. NED doesn't say why it ignores this and thinks it's part of Arp 137. Though I've seen a couple cases where the SDSS redshift was apparently very wrong I doubt this is one of them. I don't have a final answer, however.

The tiny blue galaxy NE of Arp 232 is another problem. Some sources say it is NGC 2912. Other sources say NGC 2912 is a duplicate entry for NGC 2914 (Arp 137) The NGC project, however, says NGC 2912 is just a star. I like Dr. Corwin's logic and will go with him and NED saying NGC 2912 is a star. Seligman agrees with Dr. Corwin on this. The star was first recorded by Herman Schultz on April 3, 1870. The PGC records it as PGC 3325919. That leaves this blue galaxy. NED and Seligman say it is PGC 027167. They put it at a redshift distance of 172 million light-years making it a dwarf member of the group. They class it as Im, an irregular dwarf of the Magellanic type. To me, it looks like a very small spiral but that likely is due to my limited resolution.

There are many more minor members of the group as well as one large member, NGC 2919 in the upper left of my image. It shows a lot of interesting detail. NED classes it as SAB(r)b: with a redshift that puts it only 127 million light-years away. Is it truly a member of the group with a somewhat unusual red sift due to its motions in the cluster or just a foreground object. I flipped a mental coin and it came up with it being a member of the group. It was discovered by William Tempel on February 1, 1877. The annotated image lists galaxies that have a redshift indicating they are members of the group listed by catalog name and distance. Galaxies and quasars not members of the group with redshift data are listed by their redshift distance. All distances are in billions of light years and determined using NED's 5 year WMAP option.

Arp 232/NGC 2911 was discovered by William Herschel on March 11, 1784. NGC 2912, just a star, was cataloged by Herman Schultz on April 3, 1870. Arp 137/NGC 2914 was discovered by William Herschel on March 3, 1786. Neither of Herschel's discoveries are in either of the Herschel observing programs. NGC 2919 was discovered by Wilhelm Tempel on February 1, 1877.

If all this isn't enough there are two asteroids in the image also identified on the annotated image. Both are near the top of the image. (51757) 2001 LA4 at magnitude 19.4 is directly above Arp 232 while (78275) 2002 PU30 at magnitude 19.8 is about 3 and a half minutes northeast of it coming out of the right side of a rather bright star.

Arp's image of Arp 137 is at:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp137.jpeg

Arp's image of Arp 232 is at:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp232.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP137

ARP138

Arp 138, NGC 4015, is a pair of galaxies in Coma Berenices about 210 million light-years away. It is right on the border with Leo. In fact, the right 25% of my image is in Leo. Arp put this pair in his category Elliptical and elliptical-like galaxies: Material emanating from elliptical galaxies. His comment reads: "Absorption leads directly into E galaxy." I presume this refers to the dark cloud off the end of the spiral galaxy's tip. It's hard to tell if it is coming from the spiral or the elliptical. Arp apparently considers it coming from the elliptical or appearing to at least by the category it put it in. Since the elliptical shows no other signs of dust and spirals are often very dusty I'd suspect the spiral as being the more likely source of the dust. The redshifts of the galaxies are virtually the same so no help there.

Other than the dust cloud I see no sign the two galaxies are even interacting. If they are it must be just beginning. Apparently, they aren't quite as close as they appear to be. NED classes them as S? and E with no further refinement. It appears the spiral is closer to us than the elliptical though its redshift is very slightly larger. Are they on a collision course? No way to know as there's no way to measure their proper motion across the field. They may be moving sideways far faster than their approach velocity. It was discovered by John Dreyer on April 26, 1878. Yes, the same guy who compiled the NGC and related IC catalogs.

The field has several NGC galaxies in it. I've identified those on the annotated image as well as redshift distances in billions of light-years when known. There are distant galaxy clusters. Their position is marked by the large cD galaxy at the heart of the cluster. They are shown as having 18 or so members but I don't begin to see that many around either cD galaxy. They are marked C/GC followed by their distance in billions of light-years. NGC 4005 is also NGC 4007. Such double names are surprisingly common in the NGC.

There are two asteroids in the image. The bright one is (43477) 2001 BX7 at 18.7 magnitude. The fainter at my estimated magnitude of about 19.8 is -- I did it again -- unknown. Found and let another one get away. This was taken March 20, 2010 so a bit late to try and find it again. Minor planet center doesn't have it in their database is all I know. Edit: Since then it has been discovered in 2016. It is 2016 LN21. Since then it has faded per the MPC magnitude estimate to magnitude 20.8 a full magnitude below what I measured.

Arp's image
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp138.jpeg

Sloan image
http://astronomerica.awardspace.com/SDSS-30/NGC4015.php

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

Related Designations for ARP138

ARP139

Arp 139/MCG +05-31-135 consists of 2 galaxies in Coma Berenices a bit southeast of the famous Coma Cluster of galaxies. At least 2 galaxies are what the catalogs say. But there could be as many as 4 there. It's all very confusing. The main object to the west (right) is classed by NED as S pec while the eastern member is classed as E0. There is a detached object between these two. It is listed as SDSS J130727.94+264323.4 at magnitude 16.7. It isn't listed as being part of a galaxy. The western member of the duo has a long tidal arm that ends in a bright blob. That isn't listed at NED so must be considered part of Arp 139's western member. Could it be a separate galaxy drawing off the tidal plume? I can't find much at all on this object.

Arp classed it under Elliptical and Elliptical Like Galaxies: Material emanating from elliptical galaxies. So he sees the western member as an elliptical with a plume, not a spiral as classed by NED. Or maybe he sees the eastern elliptical as emitting all to the west. He left no comment to help decide this issue. See what I mean by confusing? NED shows the redshift distance for the western member as 538 million light-years and the eastern member as 519 million light-years. Are they even interacting? The minor redshift difference doesn't rule out interaction. The elliptical, however, seems distortion free so I have to wonder if it is involved at all. Maybe not.

Only one other galaxy in the field has any redshift data. It is the only other "large" galaxy in the image. It is KUG 1305+270 which is a listing from an ultraviolet catalog. So likely some major star formation has happened here in the recent past. It is a very obvious spiral but NED has it classed amazingly enough as E3 pec. Though under morphology it says S? Looks like an obvious Sc or so galaxy to me. Being 3 armed it would fit under Arp's 3 arm spiral category it would seem to me. It is shown at a redshift distance of 473 million light-years. Possibly a member of the same group as Arp 139. For that reason, I've included it in my enlarged cropped image and am including the SDSS image of it.

NED lists a redshift distance for only one other object in this field. It is the quasar SDSS J130853.87+264310.4 at 10.0 billion light-years (z=1.789540) To find it locate the pair of orange stars on the left edge of the image above center. Now come down and right to a rather bright blue star. Continue down and right to a slightly fainter somewhat less blue star with an orange star close by at the 1 O'clock position. Now go right and a bit down. The first "star" you come to is the 21st magnitude quasar. Funny things happen to our concept of distance when so much time has elapsed since the light left the object. The light traveled 10 billion years to reach us but the object isn't 10 billion light-years from us. 10 billion years ago the universe was a much smaller place. Thus the object was only about 5.8 billion light-years from us when the light started its journey. It had to travel over 40% further to make up for the expansion of the universe. All this time the object was moving away from us at an ever-increasing speed. The result is that currently the quasar (if it indeed still exists) is 15 billion light-years distant. Confusing since the universe is only 13.7 billion years old. That, though only limits how far we can see and is not a measure of the size of the universe, only the radius of the part we can see. 1.3 billion years from now we can see 15 billion light-years but by then the quasar is even further away. It becomes a race, can the light reach us before the expansion of the universe is so great we'll never see the light it emits "today". Probably the light will win this race (ignoring dark energy uncertainties) but not by much. Some sources say the critical redshift is about z=2. Larger than that light emitted today will never reach us. Dark energy may change this greatly, however. Distance is a nasty subject once you get more than a couple billion light-years away.

Arp's image
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp139.jpeg

SDSS image
http://astronomerica.awardspace.com/SDSS-11/MCG5-31-135.php

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

Related Designations for ARP139

ARP140

Arp 140 is a pair of interacting galaxies, NGC 274 and NGC 275 right to left. They are 65 million light years distant and in the constellation of Cetus. Arp classed them under; material emanating from elliptical galaxies. A category that makes little sense to me. M87 has a nice jet and would seem to fit but it's under galaxies with jets which is more accurate though its the black hole, not the galaxy itself that is the cause of the jet. Other than jets what can an elliptical, or its black hole, emanate? All galaxies I've imaged so far in this category involve highly distorted galaxies, #142 through #145. All appear to be due to interacting galaxies. Arp 140 appears to fall into this pattern. Or does it? In the other cases, both the elliptical and the spiral are distorted. Usually, the spiral is considerably more distorted which isn't surprising. But both show distortion. Not in this case. Here the elliptical, NGC 274, really an S0 galaxy not elliptical, seems little distorted though it is classed a being peculiar. But its companion, at the same redshift distance, NGC 275 is highly distorted and generating new stars like crazy. This seems hard to explain. It's likely they are much farther apart than their nearly equal redshift indicates with probably the distorted spiral being closer to us. I say this because its blue color overlays some of the golden S0 galaxy. The S0's higher density may be helping keep it from distorting very much. While some theories say an S0 is the result of a galaxy merger it appears NGC 274 was already S0 long before this encounter. That doesn't mean it didn't have a previous one billions of years earlier that created it. But now look really closely at the enlargement. There does appear to be a very faint linear feature coming from the S0 pointed to the east-northeast. There seems to be a faint tidal spray around the galaxy as well. So maybe Arp was right after all though I see no hint of the feature in Arp's image. I need to take a much deeper image though that is likely impossible due to satellite traffic. This pair is right in the geostationary belt as seen from my latitude.

NGC 275 does appear highly disturbed by the encounter. It is classed as SB(rs)cd pec. Peculiar it certainly is! Its spiral structure is hardly recognizable. The core is almost gone but does have a typical orange color. The galaxy is dominated by its many massive star-forming HII regions.

NGC 274, the western elliptical like galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on September 10, 1785. It is not in either of Herschel 400 observing programs. NGC 275 was discovered by his son, John Herschel on October 9, 1828.

Due to all the geostationary satellites that were seen in this image, I had to do some fancy processing, well fancy for me, to eliminate them from hiding the galaxies. Many of the trails were atop other trails making it unlikely that even if I had enough subframes I could use any normal noise rejection combine successfully. But with only 4 frames that wasn't an option to even try. Fortunately, 2 frames had no bright satellites crossing the pair. The other two had a bunch. So I processed all 4 as well as just the two "good" ones. The latter was pretty noisy having too little time to make a good image. What I did was to process it to match the light levels of the 4 frame image but then applied stronger than normal noise reduction. I then copied just the part with the galaxies and pasted it into the full image brightening it slightly. This got rid of the satellites but left less detail in the galaxies. I then merged the two using "Darken" as the blend option. This prevented the satellites from showing but returned the detail to the galaxy since the galaxies were dimmer in the 4 frame image. I didn't do this with the full image as doing so would have wiped out the three asteroids as well as the satellites and played havoc with the brightness level of the stars. I tried it but didn't like the result. So I just used this for the area in and around Arp 140.

There are three asteroids in the image. The brightest is southeast of Arp 140, a bit under one-third of the way to the lower left corner. It is (80188) 1999 VC37 at an estimated magnitude of 18.1 but appears a bit dimmer to me. Almost as bright is (49774) 1999 WT9 straight south of (49774) 1999 WT9Arp 140 about halfway to the bottom. It too has an estimated magnitude of 18.1 but is fainter than the first one in my image. Fainter still is the one near the lower left corner by a slightly orange star. It is (186173) 2001 UZ155 at an estimated magnitude of 19.1. That appears about right. The transparency this night was poor limiting my ability to go faint. Asteroids are common only 8 degrees from the ecliptic as this object is.

Arp has something entering his image as well. The angle is wrong (at a right angle) for a belt asteroid so it may be a high inclination satellite trail. Most likely of Russian origin.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp140.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP140

ARP141

Arp 141 is a pair of interacting galaxies in Camelopardalis (a giraffe) that had been too far north and lost in my now defunct Polaris trees. I suspected it would make a spectacular image and it didn't disappoint. The pair are 126 million light-years distant by redshift and 130 million light-years by Tully Fisher measurement. A very close agreement. Arp put it in his class for "material emanating from elliptical galaxies". Arp had no comment on it so no way to tell if he really thought something was emanating from the elliptical or just that it appeared to be. In any case, this is an obvious case of the elliptical tearing apart a less massive and less dense spiral and suffering some collateral damage in the process. It has a large plume to the north as well as a plume to the south which is seen only because its red stars stand out against the blue stars of the spiral. Here's a case where color makes a plume obvious that wouldn't be seen visually in a black and white image like Arp's. Spectroscopic measurements, however, should detect the two very different star populations. NED classes the elliptical as a ring galaxy and the northern one as S0 pec rather than elliptical.

The pair is also known as UGC 3730. To the west is UGC 3705 classed as S?. It has almost the same redshift as Arp 141 so is obviously part of the same galaxy family. It shows some oddities so may also have interacted with other members of its group. These are the only galaxies with redshift data at NED. North of Arp 141 is the very odd galaxy KUG 0707+736. It is half red (southern half) and half very blue (northern end). A note at NED says: "A giant HII region is at the northwest end." Super hot O and B stars formed from this region are likely responsible for the blue end. But what triggered such massive stars to form. The galaxy is classed as Irregular?. Such galaxies often show massive star formation when they've interacted with another though this isn't required it is often the case. Without any redshift information, it is hard to tell if it is a member of the group or not. Most irregulars are small so not likely much further away at least. About the only other irregular galaxies of this type, I can recall seeing are on the two Hubble deep field images that look back at the fragments of galaxies in our very early universe that merged to form the spiral and elliptical galaxies we see today. Some are known to have escaped being lunch for a major galaxy. Is this one of those?

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp141.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP141

ARP142

The Space Telescope Science Institute that runs Hubble among other things, released a Hubble image of this interacting galaxy system. That gave me the push to reprocess my image. The flats were unusable so I replaced the background with a mostly false one. Until I retake it this will have to do. It is a "tad" poorer than theirs but since my system is billions of dollars cheaper I'll live with the difference. Arp 142 consists of the two galaxies NGC 2936 and NGC 2937 which are classed as ring galaxies. They are located in Hydra near the Sextans and Leo borders and are about 330 million light-years distant. NGC 2936, the porpoise shaped galaxy, is a bit over 160,000 light-years across and is full of new, blue star clouds due to its interaction with NGC 2937. Oddly NED lists several of these as separate galaxies rather than parts of the galaxy that they really are. This is obvious from the Hubble image but might not have been prior to that. I've listed those visible in my image on the annotated image as G? (Starcloud). NED classifies NGC 2936 as I? and 2937 as E while the NGC project says E+ for both. Why NGC 2936 is highly distorted by the encounter but NGC 2937 appears unchanged I don't know. Maybe its density is so high it could hold its stars while distorting the much less dense NGC 2936. That's only a guess on my part as I found nothing to explain it. The pair was discovered by Albert Marth on March 3, 1864.

The system has a third member, UGC 0513 Notes01. For some reason, the UGC catalog gives the two galaxies of Arp 142 different numbers (UGC 05130 and 05131) but gives the number UGC 05130 to a pair of galaxies, just not these two. The second galaxy with the 05130 number is the spiral hiding behind the star to the northwest. When this happens and the catalog doesn't make a distinction NED uses Notes(nn) to distinguish between them. Oddly NED has no Sloan Survey designation for this galaxy nor a classification or redshift data. The HST site indicates its distance is 230 million light-years making it 100 million light-years closer so just a line of sight coincidence.

The image contains 7 quasars including two with almost exactly the same redshift that indicate the universe was only about 2 billion years old when the light left those two objects. This doesn't mean they were 11.69 billion light-years away when the light was emitted that we are seeing. In fact, they were only about 5.2 billion light-years away when that happened. During those 11.69 billion years the universe has expanded so it took their light 11.69 billion years to get here due to the ever-increasing size of the universe. Today these galaxies are estimated to be 21.7 billion light-years distant. Yes, the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light at their great distance. And no this doesn't violate Einstein's laws. It is objects moving through space and the information carried though space that must obey the speed limit of the speed of light in a vacuum. Space itself is exempt from this "law". This results in some very odd effects, however. There's another quasar whose light took 10.04 billion years to reach us that is now 16.2 billion light-years away. But what's really mind boggling is that when the light seen today was emitted it was 5.8 billion light-years distant. Further than the 5.2 billion light-years of the first galaxy. All these calculations were made at NED using their 5 year WMAP assumptions.

Now that my mind is tied in a Gordian knot I'll end this by mentioning there's one asteroid in the image. When I looked it up back in 2009 the minor planet center estimated it to be at magnitude 18.1. When I looked it up for this update, not realizing I already had done so I found its estimated magnitude to be 17.8 at the same time and date. Now it's time for a drink.

Hubble's image:
http://hubblesite.org/image/3195/news_release/2013-23

ARP'S IMAGE
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp142.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP142

ARP143

Arp 143 is a pair of colliding galaxies in Lynx about 190 million light-years distant. The pair was discovered by Édouard Stephan on January 18, 1877. The red galaxy, NGC 2444, is classified as S0 pec while the blue one, NGC 2445 is an irregular of the Magellan type. It may have had some other structure prior to being torn apart by the much denser NGC 2444 which appears to be a "red and dead" galaxy though starburst activity is seen in its core thanks to the collision. NGC 2445 is packed with very blue star clusters in HII regions. Unfortunately, its redshift is too great for me to get any H alpha data on it as it has been moved out of my passband.

Arp, however, saw this pair rather differently classifying it under his category for "Material emanating from elliptical galaxies" even though neither is seen today as being an elliptical galaxy and certainly the term "material emanating" doesn't really apply. Material drug from galaxies by gravity would be more correct. Arp, however, was using visual description rather than trying to explain what was seen, I think. Arp's comment on this one puzzles me. It reads "Diffuse counter filament." I have no idea what this is referring to other than possibly the lopsided plumes from NGC 2444. The pair was discovered by Édouard Stephan on January 18, 1877.

Two other galaxies are in the image that likely are members of the same group as this pair. CGCG 206-022 is a low surface brightness classic two arm Sbc spiral to the west and ASK 045842.0 is listed as an irregular galaxy to the east. Though to my eye, it looks like a highly tilted barred spiral.

The annotated image shows several distant quasars (Q) and candidate quasars (CQ). All the candidates have spectroscopic redshift determinations so likely are either true quasars or something very akin to them to be seen as starlike objects at such great distance.

I've also annotated some of the HII regions in NGC 2445. One appears to be in two parts as the coordinates point to the space between them. Also what appears to me to be another HII region is listed as a galaxy, ASK 045722.0 by NED but with virtually the same redshift and its blue fuzzy nature looks to me to be another HII region. If not it may be the core of yet a third galaxy ripped totally apart by this collision. I rather doubt this but suppose it possible. I found nothing more on it. It looks more like an HII region in the Sloan image than in mine, I don't know why the difference other than my lower resolution may be the cause.

I found an asteroid in the image I'd overlooked the first time. It is quite bright over on the western edge of the image. How I missed it I don't know though the trail is short and moving nearly due north. This would mean I caught it right at the end or start of its retrograde motion when, except for the difference in its and our orbital plane, it would appear motionless in the sky. This lasts only a few days, a rare catch.

Arp's image is at: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/arp143.gif It is oriented south at the top while my image has north at the top. It was taken with a red sensitive emulsion (103a-D) dimming the blue regions significantly.

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

Related Designations for ARP143