ARP186

Arp 186/NGC 1614 is one of the few highly studied galaxies in Arp's catalog. Oddly, the majority of his galaxies have received little attention. This one has been studied extensively at IR and radio frequencies as well as optical by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is thought to be the merger of two galaxies that is nearly complete. The tidal tails are still evident so the merger is very recent. The Hubble web page on this one tells its story so I'll refer you to that link for the details. http://hubblesite.org/image/2302/news_release/2008-16

Arp classed it under Galaxies (not classifiable as S or E): Narrow filaments. It is located in Eridanus and is about 200 million light-years away. It was discovered by Lewis Swift on December 29, 1885.

Besides the ordinary full image at 1" per pixel I've included a 2x enlargement of just the galaxy rotated to closely match the Hubble image so that west is at the top rather than north as the full image is oriented.

The near edge on like galaxy south of Arp 186 is 2MFGC 03719. I find no distance estimate for it. There are two blue galaxies to the southwest of Arp 186. The one nearest to Arp 186 is PGC 146387 about 475 million light-years away, or over twice as far as Arp 186. The other one is 2MASX J04342393-0839138 also at about 475 million light years so those two are near each other. The gray galaxy above and a bit left of Arp 186 is PGC 1003489.

Hubble image
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0810ax/

Arp's image
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp186.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP186

ARP187

Arp 187 is classed under Arp's Galaxies (not classifiable as S or E): Narrow filaments. It is otherwise known as MCG-02-13-040A, a radio galaxy about 550 million light-years away.

Arp's image, inverted from mine, shows a faint narrow filament going southeast from the galaxy. It is best seen in my image if the image size is reduced. On the other hand, I show a large filament to the NW out of the frame of Arp's image. It shows on the DSS plates so is real though only slightly above my noise level. I do need to add time to this one. Arp apparently saw the NW filament as shown by his comment: "Faint filament points to dense nucleus. Possible fainter filament toward compact galaxy to NW." The galaxy is located in the northeast corner of Eridanus not far from Rigel. This is likely a somewhat obscured region due to dust in our galaxy. It's also too far south for good seeing from my location.

This field is rather barren of other galaxies. Nor do I see a certain candidate for interaction with Arp 187. It might be that it is the result of a merger that has already happened. The northern filament passes right by a possible candidate. It's just right of the filament and appears like a slightly distorted star. It is the IR galaxy 2MASX J05045039-1013535. Little information is available for it. One note at NED says; "Interacting with compact galaxy to the northwest? Radio-source. M 05-10, 6 arcmin to the north." Is this the galaxy the note refers to? I don't see it being massive enough to have caused this much disruption if at the same distance. It appears to me more likely it is far beyond it. As to the radio source, NED doesn't list it or show any source 6 minutes north of Arp 187.

The obvious galaxy west and a tad south of Arp 187 is 2MASX J05044617-1015169, another IR galaxy with little information available.

The large galaxy near the top right of center is IC 401, an SB(rs)b? and possible LINER galaxy about 150 million light years distant. Far too close to have anything to do with Arp 187. There are a few other IR galaxies in the image but none with much information. It was discovered by Stephane Javelle on February 9, 1893.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp187.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP187

ARP188

Arp 188 is the Tadpole galaxy, PGC 057129/UGC10214 SB(s)c pec. While the image says I used 60 minutes of Luminosity data clouds and lousy transparency limited it to more like 20 under good skies. This made for a very noisy image and I had to do some rather nasty processing to deal with the noise. The lousy light transparency meant I didn't pick up the "tail" all that well. Arp classifies it under "narrow filaments" which obviously refers to the tail which, isn't connected to any of the spiral arms. SIMBAD catalogs it as an interacting pair. It is thought the galaxy that left the long tail is GALEXASC J160601.81+552524.2. I've noted it on the cropped annotated image. It appears little is left but a disrupted core after it created the long tail.

I wanted to find the distance to the little edge-on to its right but had a major surprise. While both NED and SIMBAD list OVER 5700!!! galaxies within 5 minutes of the Tadpole (usually the count is 5 to 10 if the area is really crowded) but the one I wanted to know about was not one of them! In fact, the only galaxy in the area I could find that's in my photo is the golden round elliptical to the southwest (about 5 O'clock) just above a bright blue star. It is at the same distance as the tadpole. So what about those 5700+ other galaxies. All are dimmer than 24th magnitude, thus far below my limit and were taken from Hubble's images of this galaxy.

But there's something even more interesting in this photo. When I download the first frame of a new field I always compare it to the Palomar Digital Sky Survey plates. Since my images usually go deeper than these plates it is common to find faint stars not on the survey but this time I came up with a rather "bright" one. It's the star above and right of the nucleus. It is 6.2" north and 7.2" of arc west of the core of the tadpole. Had I found a Supernova? Yes, it was a super nova but it had been discovered 3 days earlier by the Lick Super Nova Search. It missed me by 3 days to paraphrase Maxwell Smart. Close but no cigar. It is SN 2008dq a type 1-C supernova. These are a core collapse type involving an old massive star that has run out of anything to fuse. A 1-C type has thrown off most of its helium layer prior to the collapse.

This galaxy also had a SN last year SN 2007cu. Two in one galaxy only one year apart is very rare. The one in 2007 was a white dwarf orbiting a normal star very closely. Such a supernova pulls matter from the ordinary star until it reaches the mass needed to reach its detonation point and blows up. Such stars are usually older than those that form a 1c type of super nova. So they are likely unrelated and their closeness in time only a coincidence.

The Tadpole and the elliptical I mentioned are a bit over 400 million light years from us.

Arp's image: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp188.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=6x10' RGB=2x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP188

ARP189

Arp 189/NGC 4651, the Umbrella Galaxy, is a member of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies in the constellation of Coma Berenices. As such it is about 60 million light-years distant. So I'm a bit perplexed with its coverage by NASA's Astronomical Picture of the Day entry for it. They say it is 35 million light-years distant. Its redshift distance is about 51 million light-years while NED lists many distance measurements by Tully-Fisher averaging about 85 million light-years and a Sosies measurement of 77 million light-years. Nothing that I found agrees to APOD's 35 million light-year distance. In other words, does anyone really know its distance?

Arp put it in his category of galaxies with narrow filaments. His comment reads: "Radio source near tail apparently not associated." We now know that its odd structure is due to it eating another galaxy in the recent past. The "narrow filament" is the remains of the galaxy showing its path around the galaxy as it was torn apart by gravitational tidal forces. NGC 4651 was discovered by William Herschel on December 30, 1783. I was somewhat surprised to find it isn't in either of the Herschel 400 observing programs.

I prepared an annotated image as there were some very distant galaxies on the east side of Arp 189. Probably on the other sides as well but for some reason, the Sloan survey only took redshift data mostly in a very small area of my image. All of it on very distant galaxies and one quasar. The quasar is closer than many of the galaxies! While my image is poor in focus it did go deep anyway with galaxies down to 23rd magnitude recorded. You may need to blow up the image to find some of these very faint ones. When you do you will find the field jammed with tiny faint fuzzy spots. I had thought this just background noise but when I looked up the position of these 22nd magnitude and fainter galaxies at 5 and even 6 billion light-years there was one of these fuzzy blobs dead on the position. Most agreed to a few hundredths of a second of arc. If off by more than the error circle of the SDSS data I skipped it. Only happened once. In one 10" circle that I tested there were 5 and every one had an entry in the catalog though only 1 had redshift data. Thus, I'm quite sure these faint blobs (blow up the image 3x or more to see them) are distant galaxies.

One galaxy with redshift data and out of the concentrated area is LEDA 140003 in the lower left corner. NED gives it two entries with no indication that they are duplicates. Both are listed in the 18th magnitude range with positions less than 1 second of arc (less than one pixel) different. The redshifts were slightly different as well. I've listed both on the annotated image. There does appear to be a second bright area that is below the core by three seconds of arc, far more than the separation NED shows and in the wrong direction. Both are listed with a position error circle of 1.25" of arc, more than the difference. But this doesn't explain the difference in the radial velocity measurement.

I've listed a few of the brighter galaxies that had no redshift data by catalog name. This is followed by a question mark as the distances are completely unknown.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp189.jpeg

APOD image deeper than any of the above or mine with overlay of the path of the doomed satellite galaxy:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100415.html

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=16x10' RB=6x10' G=5x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP189

ARP190

Arp classifies this one under "Galaxies (not classifiable as E or S): Narrow filaments". Odd as the two galaxies involved seem to be obvious spirals. But it appears Arp thought there were three, one stellar but he never got spectral data on it to know for sure. More on this below. It is also cataloged as UGC 2320. UGC 2320 also includes the galaxy below those with the filament.

Of the upper galaxies, the northern blue spiral galaxy has no redshift data but is presumed to be interacting with the southern red spiral galaxy. Remember that red spiral is a new classification of galaxies not recognized before being uncovered by the folks at Galaxy Zoo, many of which aren't even amateur astronomers, just folks with computers who like classifying SDSS images. The red spiral has a redshift showing a distance of about 460 million light years. So what about that odd "comet" a bit west of the red spiral? Arp says "filament seems to originate from stellar image; no spectra available". That would mean a third galaxy, one that is star-like with a huge plume. Or is it just a star? I can't find any data on it at all, even today. Most list this as a galaxy pair but some say multiple system as if to say maybe there are 3 but this may refer to the southern galaxy that some consider part of UGC 2320. Considering the "stellar object" is rather white and the plume a slightly reddish color, more like the red spiral I have to think it a tidal plume from that galaxy and the "stellar object" is just that, a star in our galaxy. If anyone out there has anything on this mystery please let me know. In measuring the FWHM of this star/galaxy I get a reading a bit larger than an average star but smaller than other known stellar galaxies. I have to believe this is a star and the point spread function of the object is due to the haze of the plume distorting the reading. If I assume the plume carries over the object and subtract that out its reading is that of a star. Still, a spectrum would be welcome! These galaxies are located in southern Aries.

That leaves the red elliptical like galaxy below the pair. Is it part of Arp 190? Arp did include it in his image and framed it as if it was. It too is part of UGC 2320 though other catalogs give it its own designation. It does seem related as its redshift distance is also about 460 million light years. If you look closely there seems to be a very faint bridge between it and the spirals to the north. But it isn't classed by NED as an elliptical galaxy which surprised me. Sure looks like one in my image. It is actually classed as a "compact object", whatever that means. The ARK catalog, where it is entry 92 says "Compact nearly symmetrical red object." The CGCG catalog where it is is entry CGCG 440-018 also mentions how compact it is. It also looks compact in Arp's photo. Problem is it looks like a rather typical E2 or E3 galaxy to me though the core region seems to get brighter faster than many do. It was the home to the super nova 2003iv back in 2003.

While there are a lot of interesting looking galaxies, including a group of 4 below Arp 190 near the bottom of my image, few are in any catalog at NED, Aladin or SIMBAD. In fact, of the 4 only the easternmost has a magnitude estimate. It is 2MASX J02500130+1243553. The next one to the west and also the southernmost of the 4 is 2MASX J02495966+1243253 but there's little other data available. The rather bluer galaxy somewhat north of the other three is 2MASX J02495556+1244454, again, not much else is worth mentioning about it that I could find. So what about the one I left out. Seems I can't even find a catalog designation for it at NED or SIMBAD though The Sky gives it the extended PGC number 1415084 and a magnitude of 16.5. In fact, The Sky 6 has quite a few extended PGC galaxies not listed in the two databases I mentioned. Super LEDA does have them but little information other than position and sometimes magnitude. The Mitchell Anonymous Catalog (MAC) also lists some of the brighter galaxies in the image but again this is just a listing with no helpful data to understand relationships or distances.

SDSS hasn't covered this part of the sky, unfortunately. So while that fourth galaxy is the brightest and reddest and likely a member of the group it isn't in the 2 micron survey. Red doesn't mean it will be strong in the infrared. That often indicates massive star formation is going on that is hidden behind dust clouds. The IR comes from this dust heated by the stars it is hiding. That doesn't appear to be happening in this galaxy. An active galactic nucleus (AGN) can hide behind a huge dust cloud and also trigger the 2 micron survey to include the galaxy.

So while there appears to be a lot going on in this image I can't find much useful to relate about all these anonymous galaxies. We are likely anonymous to the residents of these galaxies as well.

All this reminds me of a T-shirt sold here. It shows a big mosquito with blood dripping from his mouth. It is saying "So many fishermen, so little time." Substitute galaxies for fishermen and astronomy grad students for mosquitoes and it would be even more true: "So many galaxies, so little time."

I should explain the rather elongated stars. This was taken on a clear night with 40 mph winds gusting to 60 mph; 65 kph to 100 kph. Two trees fell on our road that night. But the wind direction was such it wasn't stressing the rolled off roof, even though that is about 18 feet in the air but the wind was swirling like crazy in the observatory. I hoped that the wind wouldn't hurt the image but as it got strong the seeing got worse. It started about 3" and ended at about 5" Bright stars show some elongation due to the wind. I really shouldn't have even tried imaging that night as the observatory ended up full of debris from my Polaris tree but nothing heavy hit the optics though bark scars indicated two large branches did hit the tube (well 2" in diameter weighing about 4 and 6 lb.). I took a couple more images that night I haven't processed. Don't know when those branches fell. Seeing was very variable going from great to lousy and back again. It was fair to lousy for this one. I did take 4 color frames for each color. All were poor. I chose be best two for each color as including more just made things worse, not better. I took 6 luminosity frames but had to throw out two due to the seeing getting very bad. This is another on the reshoot list I suppose.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp190.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP190

ARP191

Arp 191 is a pair of colliding galaxies in the constellation of Leo the lion. They are a bit under 400 million light-years away. Arp made this comment about them: "Acute bend in link between galaxies; plumes from stellar-like images." He classified them under Galaxies (not classifiable as S or E): Narrow Filaments. Two filaments are quite obvious. One connects the two galaxies, and is kinked as his comment mentions. The other comes from one of the blue condensations in the eastern galaxy. This galaxy pair was taken under rather poor skies and I was unable to resolve them like I'd have liked. Notice in Arp's image that one of the blue knots in the eastern galaxy, northern one, is composed of at least three star clusters. It's from these the kinked plume appears to come. The pair is known as UGC 6175.

The western galaxy is classed as SAB0- pec. While the eastern one is classed as SAB(r)0+ pec. The galaxy CGCG 095-114 to the southwest is at about the same distance and likely a member of the group. One catalog includes them as a 3 member group under the [RPG97] 114 designation. Slightly closer to Arp 191 but to the northeast is MCG +03-29-001. Unfortunately, there's no distance data on it. It does appear possible it too is about the same distance from us as the other three. West and a bit north of CGCG 095-114 is MAPS-NGP O_432_0257420. Well, north of this latter galaxy and a bit east is SDSS J110642.31+183148.7. No redshift data was found for these last two or any other galaxy in the image in the NED database.

The large galaxy at the top of the image is UGC 06171. It is far closer at about 70 to 75 million light years depending on who you listen to. I was originally going to image this when east of the meridian but clouds moved in and didn't clear until it was west of the meridian. I'd noticed this galaxy and made a note to move Arp 191 below center to be sure to pick it up. But when I flipped to the other side of the meridian that inverts the camera so I now had to move it the other way but I obeyed my note, started the image and went to bed. I discovered my mistake only now, some 8.5 months later. Too late to correct it so this galaxy is slightly cut off. I should have said to move Arp 191 a bit south of the center and all would have been fine. Sometimes my dumbth gets in the way. When I say the clouds cleared there was still a rather thick haze as well as very unstable air. Seeing was almost 4", compared to my 2.5" normal for this period limiting my ability to record the detail needed. Another one for the reshoot list!

There are two asteroids in the image. The brightest, (31619) 1999 GU18 at magnitude 17.2 is seen along the upper right edge. The fainter (55112) Mariangela (named after the discoverer's wife) at magnitude 18.2. It lies due west from CGCG 095-114. Both show as two short lines. The brighter shows color between these two dashes. The bright dashes are due to the luminosity images which were taken 2 at a time with color data between them and after them. Due to the weak signal Of this object through a thick haze, I used all 4 luminosity images plus the 6 color images to make a pseudo luminosity image. This gave the color data some luminosity data to color creating the color dashes between the two luminosity images. The fainter one was just too faint for the color data to record sufficiently above the noise level so very little is seen during the time color data was taken.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp191.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP191

ARP192

It's not often a little amateur observatory gets to correct the astronomical literature but it appears my little project of imaging in color the Arp galaxies I can reach from my latitude apparently got the ball rolling to do just that. Early astronomers only had their eyes and thus were often fooled. Many NGC objects are just stars, for instance, Mars canals don't exist nor does Vulcan. Photography helped eliminate the errors but if you don't take a second image they can lead you astray as well. This happened to Arp with his 192nd entry. Time on the 200" was difficult to come by and his project ate up a lot of it. It appears he rarely was able to take two images of his objects. But many other images of Arp 192 have been taken since yet no one seems to have noticed the main feature of the galaxy pair doesn't exist! Well, it does but not as Arp and others using his image thought. This will be a long post as the story is rather long. I'll start with the basics as Arp and others saw them.

ARP 192 NGC 3303, (discovered by William Herschel on March 21, 1784 but not in either observing program) two interacting galaxies with a huge tidal spray. Arp classed it in his category, Galaxies (not classifiable as S or E): Narrow filaments. Indeed his often reproduced image shows a great jet or spike that probably caused it to be put in this classification. Also notes at NED say things like: "Very peculiar spiral with a compact companion and a spike. Very faint outer extension." and "Main body 0.5 x 0.4 with stellar companion superimposed, loop + sharp jet, enormous irregular plumes." Arp said; "Diffuse faint arms off both sides, spike comes from stellar companion." But there appears to be a major problem here. The spike doesn't exist! Overall these years and references to the spike, no one seems to have noticed IT DOESN'T EXIST! I was sure my image would have shown it if it did exist. I find imagers saying that it apparently is below their resolution ability. But the SDSS image is of higher resolution and it doesn't show it yet no one noticed that I can find. It though uses somewhat narrow band filters which could miss something of a different narrow band character. Still, my image goes as deep and does have about the resolution of Arp's image yet there's not even the slightest hint of the jet. Galaxy sized events can't vanish this quickly.

This is where things stood for a while. I put out a few feelers to a few astronomers I know but nothing came of it. Finally, I blindly emailed one of the contributors to the Jeff Kanipe and Dennis Webb book on the catalog who contacted the authors. The best suggestion we could come up with was that it was an asteroid but to confirm that we needed to know the exact date and time of Arp's image. Then it would take a special request of Brian Marsden of the Minor Planet Center to run known asteroids for that date. This wasn't an easy task. But despite a Cal Tech librarian's best efforts (the original plate has vanished from the library) Jeff Kanipe managed to get the date and Marsden confirmed the spike is really asteroid (84447) 2002 TU240. Brian then immediately named it Jeffkanipe. It wasn't discovered until 2002. Problem is the trail is atypical on Arp's image of what you'd expect an asteroid would create. Still, the position matches and given the weird characteristics of 103 emulsions this can happen when a moving object is seen over a galaxy. Marsden suggests reciprocity as the reason. I disagree in a way. With 103 true reciprocity is a time thing. When first hit by light the film is "fast" but slows down as further photons hit that part of the film. Since the asteroid is moving I don't agree that's what's happening here. I've used 103a emulsions and they have another effect. The emulsion can be sensitized by flashing with light prior to exposure. This is a very sensitive process. Too much and it fogs the film, too little and no effect. Getting it right is difficult and it is temperature sensitive. I used to use the process so am well aware of it. I think the trail peters out away from the galaxy because the galaxy itself "flashed" the film. The trail appears slightly curved but this is due to an illusion since the trail is stronger on the side with more "flash" from the galaxy. In any case, the literature will need to be changed and a footnote added to Arp's catalog. Even though I only got the ball started it was a fascinating experience.

The galaxy pair appears to be about 300 million light-years away. Both galaxies are classed by NED as Sb which seems a bit surprising as well.

There are two fuzzy patches east and a bit below Arp 192. I see the first barely showing in the SDSS image, the bigger and brighter one further east is out of that frame. If not for the SDSS image I'd have thought these some sort of reflection. I get them occasionally but they look somewhat different than these. I can't find any identity for them, however. Are they tidal pieces from Arp 192, separate galaxies of some sort or galactic cirrus? I just don't know. They are in no catalog I can find.

There is a galaxy cluster of about 15' diameter in the image, ZwCl 1034.8+1820. It is centered about 1 minute NE of the brightest star SE of Arp 192. Few galaxies are there but there's one clump to the NE of this position and another below it running off the bottom of the image. A scattering of galaxies connects the two regions. This may be the cluster. It is listed as having 103 members but no distance.

The very blue galaxy just north of the star is CGCG 094-098 at 300 million light-years. Even though this area has been covered by the SDSS nothing else in the image has a distance estimate.

It's quite ironic (though not unexpected) that my image shows two asteroids both with about the same inclination as Arp's "spike". This is because Arp 192 lies well within the asteroid belt's position in the sky. The bright one is (11031) 1988 RC5 at magnitude 18.1. The dim one above and slightly right of it is (114750) 2003 HP40 at magnitude 19.2 That's a bit dimmer than the predicted magnitude of Arp's misidentified asteroid.

Prior to his catalog Arp was a "normal" astronomer who followed the main path that redshift was a distance measurement, newly discovered QSO's were distant objects, the big bang happened etc. But after the catalog, he changed. It appears the change was due to his idea that some peculiar galaxies, those in the middle of his catalog, were likely ejecting material including black holes. He slowly changed to what most would likely call a "crackpot" astronomer throwing out virtually all his basic beliefs and replacing them with his rather unorthodox views. I can't help but wonder how much this particular "spike" might have played in this "conversion." Would his change, of course, have happened if he knew this was an asteroid? How would his future have been changed if he'd just taken a second image to confirm it? Maybe not at all. But I can't help wondering. Arp was still alive when his spike was discovered to be an asteroid. He seemed a bit disappointed that it wasn't something more exotic but had little comment otherwise.

SDSS http://cosmo.nyu.edu/hogg/rc3/NGC_3303_UGC_5773_ARP_192_irg_clean.jpg
Arp's image with the false "spike":
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp192.jpeg

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


ASTEROID (11031) 1988 RC5 10 36 23.1 +18 03 16 18.1
(114750) 2003 HP40 10 36 10.9 +18 12 02 19.2


=================================================================

It's not often an amateur observatory gets to correct the astronomical literature but it appears my little project of imaging in color the Arp galaxies I can reach from my latitude apparently got the ball rolling to do just that. Early astronomers only had their eyes and thus were often fooled. Many NGC objects are just stars, for instance, Mars canals don't exist nor does Vulcan. Photography helped eliminate the errors but if you don't take a second image they can lead you astray as well. This happened to Arp with his 192nd entry. Time on the 200" was difficult to come by and his project ate up a lot of it. It appears he rarely if ever, was able to take two images of his objects. But many other images of Arp 192 have been taken since yet no one seems to have noticed the main feature of the galaxy pair doesn't exist! Well, it does but not as Arp and others using his image thought. This will be a long post as the story is rather long. I'll start with the basics as Arp and others saw them.

ARP 192 NGC 3303, two interacting galaxies with a huge tidal spray. Arp classed it in his category, Galaxies (not classifiable as S or E): Narrow filaments. Indeed his often reproduced image shows a great jet or spike that probably caused it to be put in this classification. Also notes at NED say things like: "Very peculiar spiral with a compact companion and a spike. Very faint outer extension." and "Main body 0.5 x 0.4 with stellar companion superimposed, loop + sharp jet, enormous irregular plumes." Arp said; "Diffuse faint arms off both sides, spike comes from stellar companion." Here's his image a bit reduced and converted to a positive print.

There things stood for 46 years until I imaged it and had a "What the #&*@" reaction looking at my image and comparing it to Arp's. Others, including Sloan, had imaged it but somehow overlooked the obvious. Here is the above image overlaid on my image as it switches back and forth between the two images.

The famous spike doesn't exist! Overall these years and references to the spike, no one seems to have noticed! I was sure my image would have shown it if it did exist. I find imagers saying that it apparently is below their resolution ability. But the SDSS image is of sufficient resolution and it doesn't show it yet no one noticed that I can find. Still, my image goes as deep and does have about the resolution of Arp's image yet there's not even the slightest hint of the jet. Galaxy sized events don't vanish this quickly.

This is where things stood for a while. I put out a few feelers but nothing came of them. Finally, I blindly emailed one of the contributors to the Jeff Kanipe and Dennis Webb book on the catalog who contacted the authors. The best suggestion we could come up with was that it was an asteroid but to confirm that we needed to know the exact date and time of Arp's image. Then it would take a special request of Brian Marsden of the Minor Planet Center to run known asteroids for that date. This wasn't an easy task. But despite a Cal Tech librarian's best efforts Jeff Kanipe managed to get the date and Marsden confirmed the spike is really asteroid (84447) 2002 TU240. It wasn't discovered until 2002. Problem is the trail is atypical on Arp's image of what you'd expect an asteroid would create. Still, the position matches and given the weird characteristics of 103 emulsions this can happen when a moving object is seen over a galaxy. Brian Skiff suggests reciprocity as the reason. I disagree in a way. With 103a emulsions I used, true reciprocity is a time thing. When first hit by light the film is "fast" but slows down as further photons hit that part of the film. Since the asteroid is moving I don't agree that's what's happening here. I've used 103a emulsions and they have another effect. They can be sensitized by flashing with light prior to exposure. This is a very sensitive process. Too much and it fogs the film, too little and no effect. Getting it right is difficult and temperature sensitive. I used to use the process so am well aware of it. I think the trail peters out away from the galaxy because the galaxy itself "flashed" the film. The trail appears slightly curved but this is due to an illusion since the trail is stronger on the side with more "flash" from the galaxy. In any case, the literature will need to be changed and a footnote added to Arp's catalog. Even though I only got the ball started it was a fascinating experience.

Below is the email I received from Jeff Kanipe. Since then I've learned from him that this will be announced at the January at the AAS meeting.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear Rick,

Dennis Webb first brought to my attention your observation of the curious incident of the galactic spike that did not appear in Arp 192, and so first off, we greatly thank you. I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. An answer, however, was not readily forthcoming, as you will appreciate. It has taken a lot of footwork and image processing, not a little computation and measuring, and some serious archival mining-in fact, all the way back to Arp's original observing log. But we now have an answer as to why this feature appears to have vanished. It was an asteroid, minor planet (84447) TU 240, in fact. According to Brian Marsden of the SAO, it was discovered by NEAT from their Haleakala site on 6 Oct. 2002. It is not an NEO but a main-belt asteroid with a = 2.5 AU, e = 0.02, i = 10 deg. Prediscovery observations of this asteroid have been noted in 2000 (Catalina and LINEAR), as well as a single ESO image on 1 Mar. 1992. But, according to the digitized log book of Arp's Atlas observations (and just locating this took nearly a month) the Atlas image, taken on 19 Feb. 1964, is the earliest known prediscovery image. It is astonishing that for forty-five years, this feature was thought to be part of the structure of this peculiar galaxy. You may be pleased to know that I sent Chip a note congratulating him on discovering an asteroid. He was very much interested in this little mystery, but I think he was hoping for a more exotic outcome.

Many of the astronomers I discussed this with (and there were at least ten) considered that the spike might be an asteroid, given 192's position near the ecliptic plane. But others argued that it did not look like an asteroid track, in that it appears to fade at its greatest distance from the galaxy, which is more characteristic of a bridge or tidal tail, and appeared slightly curved. All agreed, however, that, since the feature no longer exists, it couldn't be something intrinsic to the galaxy. At that distance (90 Mpc), its length would have to be on the order of many kpc, and a structure like that wouldn't evaporate within 45 years' time. Because the spike looked like something other than an asteroid, some astronomers speculated that it could a flaw in the emulsion or some sort of artifact. Had it been any of the latter, we would have had to examine the original plate. Fortunately, we did not have to do that because the original plates cannot be located. According to Chip, they should be locked in a steel vault in either the basement or attic of the Carnegie Observatories' office in Pasadena, but apparently, they are not there! This is another mystery.

Brian Skiff suggests that the fading of the trail is what you might expect from reciprocity-failure in the emulsion, which makes sense given that the asteroid was in retrograde, thus its track began over the galaxy when the emulsion was fresh and "petered out" northwest after 40 minutes when the emulsion grew "tired." Some of the spike's apparent structure, too, could have come from emulsion effects. The trail is stronger while it is on top of the galaxy simply because the galaxy (or the galaxy + asteroid) has bumped up the background and hence the track has greater density.

The slight curvature is more problematic. Skiff thinks it may be due to field rotation, something you are, no doubt, very familiar with. If the guide star is on the edge of the field (the one at the bottom of the Arp plate is V = 15.09 and would have made a tempting guide star), the center of the field ends up rotating a bit during a "perfect" exposure. It could also be due to a slip in the guiding using the slow-motion buttons on the hand paddle. But I cannot believe Arp would be so slipshod in his guiding. (After all, Arp learned everything he knew about long-exposure guiding from none other than Walter Baade!) It is my belief that the slight curve is an optical illusion caused by the fizzled out track "blending" with background stars and/or other sources. If you look closely at the image with a magnifying glass, you can actually see where the dark track transects the bulbous part of the galaxy. If you lay a ruler across the whole thing, the track is straight.

Below is the daily ephemeris of where this asteroid would have been at the time the image was made. It was prepared by Marsden.

(84447) a,e,i = 2.52, 0.02, 10 Elements MPO143061
Date TT R. A. (2000) Decl. Delta r Elong. Phase V
1964 02 17 10 38.90 +17 46.5 1.499 2.476 169.1 4.3 19.0
1964 02 18 10 38.06 +17 56.2 1.498 2.476 169.8 4.1 19.0
1964 02 19 10 37.22 +18 05.8 1.497 2.477 170.3 3.8 19.0
1964 02 20 10 36.36 +18 15.3 1.496 2.477 170.7 3.7 19.0
1964 02 21 10 35.50 +18 24.8 1.496 2.477 171.0 3.6 19.0

The coordinates given in the Atlas for Arp 192 are: 10 35.4 +18 17. Very close indeed, considering Arp's coordinates are epoch 1970.

There's a lot more I could tell you about this adventure-the frustrating searches for archival images, the librarian at Caltech who couldn't have cared less, the many iterations of image processing, and the back-and-forth discussions I had with Dennis and all the astronomers, but that would make for a long email indeed. You may congratulate yourself on noting that something was (literally) amiss and thus contributing to galactic literature. Thanks to your keen observation, all the catalogs will now have to be updated! I have proposed presenting a poster paper on this at the upcoming American Astronomical Society meeting in D.C., and Brian and I have also discussed writing a joint paper for either The Observatory or the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, but all this remains to be seen. If nothing else, resolving this mystery was enough fun for me!

If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or Dennis.

Sincere regards,

Jeff Kanipe
http://www.cosmicconnectionbook.com/index.php
http://www.willbell.com/HANDBOOK/arp.htm

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The galaxy pair appears to be about 300 million light-years away. Both galaxies are classed by NED as Sb which seems a bit surprising as well.

There are two fuzzy patches east and a bit below Arp 192. I see the first barely showing in the SDSS image, the bigger and brighter one further east is out of that frame. If not for the SDSS image I'd have thought these some sort of reflection. I get them occasionally but they look somewhat different than these. I still don't know if they are real or not but suspect they are. I can't find any identity for them, however. Are they tidal pieces from Arp 192, separate galaxies of some sort or galactic cirrus? I just don't know. They are in no catalog I can find.

There is a galaxy cluster of about 15' diameter in the image, ZwCl 1034.8+1820. It is centered about 1 minute NE of the brightest star SE of Arp 192. Few galaxies are there but there's one clump to the NE of this position and another below it running off the bottom of the image. A scattering of galaxies connects the two regions. This may be the cluster. It is listed as having 103 members but no distance.

The very blue galaxy just north of the star is CGCG 094-098 at 300 million light-years. Even though this area has been covered by the SDSS nothing else in the image has a distance estimate.

It's quite ironic (though not unexpected) that my image shows two asteroids both with about the same inclination as Arp's "spike". This is because Arp 192 lies well within the asteroid belt's position in the sky. The bright one is (11031) 1988 RC5 at magnitude 18.1. The di

Related Designations for ARP192

ARP193

Arp 193/IC 883: Located in Canes Venatici about 330 million light-years away. it was discovered by Rudolf Spitaler on May 1, 1891. It appears to be the result of the merger of two disk galaxies. The two plumes make this quite obvious. Arp, however, had to go without this information as little was known about the formation of galaxy plumes at the time of his atlas. All he could do was categorize them based on appearance. So he put this one in his galaxies with narrow filaments category. His comment reads: "Faint straight outer spikes, hard knots in main body." If he suspected a galaxy merger he never mentioned it. The CGPG catalog says of this one: "Blue post-eruptive patchy compact with sharp jets southwest and southeast." Again a pure description. "Jets" would indicate they too never suspected a merger or that these were tidal features. To be "jets" they'd have to be expelled with force from the galaxy rather than ripped from it by tidal forces created by the gravity of the merging galaxies.

NED classes it as Sb sp LIRG. How they see it as an Sb spiral I can't fathom. Nor does the sp seem to fit. That's always meant to me a spindle galaxy. LIRG does fit as that stands for Luminous InfraRed Galaxy. It is very bright in near IR light taken by Hubble (see below). Usually, this designation means it is a near starburst galaxy or maybe a starburst galaxy. A merger certainly could do this.

This is one that the HST has imaged. Its image is made from 3 images taken at 435nm which is right up at the violet/ultraviolet border and 2 taken at 814nm which is in the near-infrared. I assume a pseudo green image was made by combining the two. The two image were then assigned to blue and red to make the image. This results in rather different colors than I get using filters that take in all of the visible spectrum. But they do get a "little" more detail.

http://dic.academic.ru/pictures/wiki/files/72/Hubble_Interacting_Galaxy_IC_883_%282008-04-24%29.jpg

In my annotated image you'll find near the top border, left of center, an object I've labeled XG for X-Ray galaxy. It was discovered by the XXM-Newton X-Ray Multiple Mirror satellite. NED shows it as XBS J132052.5+341742 ID and lists it as a AGN1 galaxy rather than a quasar. Sloan, on the other hand, says it is just a star. So where did the redshift measurement come from? This paper it appears. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?2008A%26A...477..735C
Star or near quasar? NED agrees with the X-Ray satellite data. As usual, there are some interesting galaxies for which I found no redshift data, at least all I checked on were listed for a change.

IC 883 was discovered by Rudolf Spitaler on May 1, 1891.

A piece of space junk flew through the frame. I usually remove these but decided to let this "tumbleweed" remain as it had some character. I did remove a more normal one that didn't make the cut.

About all those spikes on some bright stars and none on others. Seems as the temperature warmed and froze last winter I had screws come loose. First, it was the set screws holding the camera on the scope. They can't come loose enough to drop the camera but did allow it to sometimes tilt in some positions. Doesn't take many microns to screw things up but good. Next came the screw in my brain which didn't think that if those worked loose maybe others did too. So I continued on in ignorance. Then one day, right before this was taken, in fact, I found the filter wheel returning error messages, it wouldn't turn. Opening the camera (which had just been retightened a few days earlier from the previous screw issue) I found TWO filters had fallen out of the filter wheel. Trying to turn the wheel just scraped them causing some sleeking. Now whenever a bright star hits one of these narrow sleek marks it generates a spike. Since the wheel turned several times before jamming and the filters moved each time a couple sleeks cross. A star hitting that point generates two spikes, one for each sleek. I didn't get the budget in order to replace them (replaced all 4 with Generation 2 filters) until May. Then I found I was shorted the luminance filter which was not a problem to get replaced, Astrodon was very good about it, but I had to wait for the next production run which took until late June to arrive. So you will be seeing a lot of these. The sleeks flat fielded out nicely but did generate spikes. So until I get to the late June images, spikes like these will sometimes be an issue. Also, the nasty blue halos I've dealt with (poorly at times) are a thing of the past with these new filters. For now, we enter the "Sleek Period" of my digital imaging career.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp193.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP193

ARP194

Arp 194 is also known as UGC 06945, a galaxy pair; and USGC U434, a triple galaxy. It is a bit under a half billion light-years away in the southeast corner of Ursa Major. Arp classed it under Galaxies (not classifiable as S or E), material ejected from nuclei. I just see a typical tidal disruption of interacting galaxies that has had time to create star knots as gravity tries to pull the parts back together again. The more interesting question is whether the northern galaxy is one or two galaxies. The UGC lists it as one with the core coordinates of the upper apparent core. The USGC calls the system a triple but defines one of them two seconds of arc north of the lower "core" in the northern galaxy where Arp's image and mine show nothing at all but the very northern edge of that core. Arp's photo in blue light greatly diminishes the red cores so the upper galaxy doesn't show even one obvious core but the knots in the bridge between the northern complex and southern galaxy show very well. Arp's comment on these doesn't help much saying: "Outer material connected by thin filament to very hard nucleus." Apparently, he is hung up on the likely incorrect idea of the southern galaxy's core ejecting the knots. To me, it's an interesting study in how three interacting galaxies create tidal arms that then further evolve. However you look at it, this is an interesting group. I typed the above before looking to see if Hubble had imaged it. Somehow I missed the fact it had in January 2009. Turns out most of my guesses above were rather accurate.

Hubble took a great image of this pair last January -- see link below. It showed there's no connection at all between the two northern galaxies and the lower. The knotty tail is well in front of the southern galaxy. Much as the extended arm of M51 lies in front of its companion. Though in this case it isn't known if this southern member is even involved in the tidal distortions of the two northern galaxies. They alone may be sufficient to account for all the tidal features. In any case Hubble clearly shows the northern galaxy is made up of two members and shows the star like knot in the southwest corner in my image is yet another rather normal looking galaxy, apparently seen through or in front of Arp 194. Though NED shows no galaxy at its position. The Hubble text puts the pair at 600 million light-years, not 500 and says it is in Cepheus. I know the latter to be in error. In fact, Cepheus is opposite it in the sky! So I don't trust the stated distance either as it is mentioned in the same sentence. At least the telescope operators knew where it was when they took the images. Edit: The HST site was recently revised. In doing so they corrected both the distance and location of this object so it is no longer in error.

The rather large and bright disk galaxy 2 minutes below Arp 194 is the IR strong galaxy SDSS J115751.32+362123.1. It really is rather large as its redshift puts it three times further away than Arp 194 at 1.5 billion light-years. A similar disk galaxy is east and a bit south of Arp 194. It, SDSS J115809.07+362215.0, too is a strong IR emitting galaxy also at 1.5 billion light-years. So these two are likely members of the same group.

A much smaller round red galaxy is north of Arp 194 above and some left of a bright orange star. It is SDSS J115758.80+362646.3 and only 1 billion light-years distant.

The large galaxy on the western side of the image is the Scd galaxy UGC 06929 at 300 million light-years.

On the western edge, above center is the galaxy cluster MaxBCG J179.19695+36.45132. NED puts it at 1.6 billion light-years centered on the IR galaxy SDSS J115647.26+362704.7. NED lists it as having 14 members. No diameter is given, however. There's yet another galaxy cluster, MaxBCG J179.22805+36.56235, in the upper right corner at 2.1 billion light-years. It is centered on the IR galaxy SDSS J115654.73+363344.5 at the same distance. It is listed as having 14 members. Again, no size is given. Between these two clusters is the center of ZwCl 1154.2+3646, a cluster with some 133 members in a 20 minute circle. So it encompasses both of the other clusters and more. Its center is the just left of the center of the label I put in the annotated image. Its position in NED is only approximate so this is the best I can do.

Arp's image
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp194.jpeg

Hubble images:
http://hubblesite.org/image/2542/news_release/2009-18
Wider angle view but lower resolution. Uses the full WFPC2 frame
http://heritage.stsci.edu/2009/18/original.html

14" LX200R @ F/10, L=6x10, RG=3x10, B=2x10 (clouds ruined one blue), STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP194

ARP195

This image was taken under poor conditions as I was imaging through haze or light fog. This caused some very nasty halos around the brighter stars. I reduced them somewhat. The haze reduced my ability to go deep. But seeing was pretty good and that was needed for this one.

Arp 195 is in Arp's category "Galaxies (not classifiable as E or S): Material ejected from nuclei. Also known as UGC 04653, it is a triple galaxy system in which the northernmost has one heck of a tidal plume though Arp seems to consider this as something the nucleus ejected from his classification. To me, it looks little different from the plume in Arp 190 which he classed as a narrow filament. Why the difference escapes me. In the case of both, the likely source galaxy is rather red but the plume is either less red (Arp 190) or slightly blue in the case of Arp 195. Arp makes the following note in his catalog: "absorption edge on connection to nucleus". I still don't know what this refers to. There does seem to be a dark absorption lane between the upper two galaxies. This might be it. These galaxies are very distant, about 750 million light years. So getting much detail with my typical seeing isn't easy. The middle galaxy hosted a super nova recently, SN 2008bv. It blew early in 2008 and this image was taken nearly a year later in the middle of January 2009 so I missed it. It had faded from view months earlier. NED classes the southern galaxy as SBb, but the other two are left unclassified. The triplet is located in southern Lynx.

This would be a good time to bring up Arp's idea of galaxies ejecting objects. It would seem the classification of this object and others in his "material ejected from Nuclei" class fit this idea. To him many, if not all, quasars are relatively near by objects ejected from galaxies rather than black holes at the core of very distant galaxies. To make this idea work he has to explain red shift as something other than a distance indicator. Something he's never really managed. Also we see absorption lines in quasar spectra that come from the vast interstellar media between us and the quasar. When the light passes through several galaxy clusters at various distances we see these lines with the right red shift to match that of those clusters indicating the object is beyond these clusters and not nearby. Virtually no one accepts Arp's idea about ejected quasars nor that the plumes seen in galaxies of this class are due to ejected material. It is well agreed they are tidal plumes just like others he does seem to recognize as falling into this classification. Though he even describes these in terms that are rather ambiguous like "diffuse counter tails", "narrow counter-tails" and "narrow filaments". While others he fits into the ejected class by calling what others would call narrow tidal features, "jets". One of which likely doesn't even exist. You have to consider his classification scheme in light of this ejecta belief. True galaxies do eject matter. Black holes in the cores, when active, emit strong jets of electrons and maybe other particles that radio telescopes see as huge plumes, a very few of which are seen in visible light such as the black hole generated jet in M87. Also massive star formation can create solar winds of such intensity they can carry matter in the form of gas and dust out of a galaxy. M82 would be an example of this. But massive objects, that is very rare. A run-away star ejected when its companion blows itself to bits in a super nova explosion may happen but these are rare random events not capable of making a jet. Most of Arp's jets are due to tidal interaction that can create "beads on a string" effects as mentioned in a previous post. I'll have more of these in the future when I get them processed. But in 1966 they did seem to be jets, at least to Arp. Arp's catalog is fascinating but some of his ideas are rather out there in left field, assuming space has a left field. Still they force astronomers to better support the current models and that's always a good thing.

The tiny reddish galaxy, OK they are all that color, just east of Arp 195 is 2MASX J08540227+3508470 at just over one billion light years, so likely not related.

Continuing east about halfway to the edge from Arp 195 is a larger appearing galaxy. The halo around it is real, not haze. It is 2MASX J08543214+3509203 at about 770 million light years.

NW of Arp 195 is a small galaxy of magnitude 21.1. It is SDSS J085329.60+351242.4 and is nearly 4.5 billion light-years away. It is also listed as a radio source. I have little resolution on it but it looks oddly shaped as if it could be two interacting galaxies. I wouldn't normally suggest that but being a radio source means it has a lot of activity going on, maybe just an energetic AGN at the core or maybe a collision. I'm surprised I was able to get it through the haze layer. Normally my background is about 300 ADU. For this image, it was 2900 thanks to the haze or light fog. I figured 20th magnitude would be my limit.

Below and a bit west of the above galaxy are two more that don't appear all that different on my image. The upper one is a bit redder and a bit smaller and dimmer but not by much. Yet that slightly redder and dimmer one is 2.2 billion light years away compared to only about a quarter billion for the one below it. Obviously, you can't expect galaxies to all be average size and brightness.

Two asteroids were in the area when I took the image (165805) 2001 RB58 at magnitude 19 on the west side of my image and (115475) 2003 UV4 at magnitude 18.6 on the east side.

I've been asked for more annotated images so I've made one for this image. It just shows the distance to the various galaxies and one quasar in the image. I find it interesting that the most distant galaxy is further away than the quasar. All labels are directly west (right) of the galaxy or quasar they refer to. A few times there was a second galaxy that forced me to lower the label a bit so not to overwrite this other galaxy. That put the label below the unlabeled one. Oddly, when this happened the second galaxy never had any redshift data, even if it was brighter. This happened with quite a few pairs in the image, not just those that got in the way of my labeling. In fact, only one pair had redshift data and they turned out to have almost exactly the same redshift. Notice there's a group around 1.6 light years. NED lists a possible galaxy cluster, NSC J085511+350146, with a photographic redshift of about 1.9 billion light years in the lower left of my image. The label goes through the center coordinates. I see nothing there. South of it there are some faint galaxies, right in the SE corner of my image. Looking at the SDSS data for the area I see no jump in the galaxy count around the given coordinates either. But the label is there.

Arp's image with the 200" telescope:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp195.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP195