ARP196

Another twofer deal. I keep finding it interesting that he often finds two entries in one field and other times ignores equally peculiar galaxies in other Arp galaxy fields. The pair is located in the constellation of Coma Berenices. They are located 958 and 979 light-years distant so likely members of the same group.

Arp 60 is left of center and slightly closer by redshift measurement. It is in his category of Spiral galaxies with small, high surface brightness companions on an arm. One of his larger categories. NED had no redshift data on its "companion" so not certain it really is one. Though there is what might be a third arm on that side that is fainter and less well formed as if tidal effects may have helped cause it. While I see no connection between the two in my image, the Sloan, nor Arp's images, NED says of it; "small, high surface brightness companion on end of arm M51 Type." What do they see that causes this statement? The SDSS shows it both as a galaxy and a quasar! That seems highly questionable. It is also in the 2MASX catalog of infrared sources. I'm not sure it was in any catalog before Arp put it in his atlas. NED only lists it in catalogs that are far newer. Could it be he found it when he added Arp 196 to the atlas? The "companion" is SDSS J131446.02+260629.8. NED shows it in no other catalog. NED doesn't attempt to classify either member of the pair though the main one is clearly a spiral. The other may be S0 or an edge on spiral. I lean to S0.

Arp 196 is likely a real pair of interacting galaxies. Arp put them in his odd category: Material ejected from Nucleus. Does he think one was ejected from the other or both ejected their tidal plumes? Back when the atlas was compiled tidal plumes weren't well understood. Still, I have problems with most galaxies in this category.

Both show severe distortion unlike Arp 60. The smaller, southern member is listed in the 2MASX catalog as an IR source and the SDSS as a galaxy. The pair carry the designation CGPG 1312.2+2623. This catalog dates back to at least 1971 and may have been partly compiled by the time Arp was looking for his peculiar galaxies. Again, NED shows no other catalog entry for the pair that could have existed at the time of the atlas. These would likely be unknown galaxies if not for inclusion in his atlas. The only comment at NED on the pair reads: "In a post-eruptive interconnected pair of neutral compacts. 45 arcsec [south-south-west] of CGPG 1312.2+2623 NED01. Barlike." The northern member also made the PGC catalog as PGC 046054. Other than that it is quite obscure as well. NED makes no attempt to categorize either member.

The annotated image shows three other galaxies that are about the same distance as these two so likely members of the same group.

Arp's image of Arp 60
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp60.jpeg

Arp's image of Arp 196
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp196.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=7x10' RGB=2x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP196

ARP197

Or maybe the Broken Stinger Galaxy.

Arp 197 is a pair, maybe trio, of galaxies in western Leo nearly 300 million light-years distant. Arp put them in his class galaxies with material ejected from nuclei. His comment reads: "Straight filament off one end of bar, kink at end of filament." The pair Arp saw is known as UGC 6503, a galaxy pair. The big galaxy is IC 701 and is the only one with redshift distance. The other galaxy in the pair, if it is a pair, is the round galaxy just left of the tip of the filament. Besides being UGC 6503 NED 02 it carries the separate designation of SDSS J113103.26+202831.7. IC 701 is classed as SB(rs)dm pec so is a barred spiral which is quite obvious from my image. It was discovered by Lewis Swift on April 22, 1889.

While Arp puts it in his category of material ejected from the nucleus it is quite obvious the filament comes off the end of the bar not the core of the galaxy. The filament fades out and then reappears a bit to the east of the track it had been on before fading down. When it starts up again it passes by SDSS J113103.26+202831.7 as if not being bothered by its gravity and then has a very small bright blue knot before continuing on a few more seconds of arc. The SDSS considers this a separate galaxy, hence my comment it might be a trio. It is identified as SDSS J113103.14+202837.3.

Without any redshift data on either of these two objects its hard to say what is going on here. I really doubt that UGC 6503 NED 02/SDSS J113103.26+202831.7 is involved at all with IC 701 even though it is considered to be a pair with the IC galaxy. It shows no hint of distortion yet is far smaller so should be more bothered. Actually, except for the filament, IC 701 is rather normal looking. So what is going on here? Wish I had a glimmer. I can't find any papers that really shed much light on this. Is the blob at the far end of the filament a separate galaxy or just a knot in a filament? If part of the filament what caused it in the first place. There seems no candidate around. Could the filament and the knot be the remains of a dwarf galaxy that passed IC 701 and got torn apart into the filament in the process? If so why is IC 701 rather normal looking but for this filament? Lots of questions but no answers I could find. But there may be a candidate. Unfortunately, I didn't know about it at the time I took the image. I should research before imaging rather than after. It is almost due east of Arp 197 just out of my frame. It is a nice barred spiral known as UGC 06525 and classed as (R)SB(r)b:. It shows some distortion of its arms, especially the northern one. Having a redshift that puts it only 4 million light-years closer than Arp 197 it is certainly related and may be involved though I tend to doubt it's involvement. While I didn't capture it I've included the SDSS image of it.

The galaxy south of Arp 197 has a redshift that puts it 210 million light-years distant. So doesn't seem involved. It is KUG 1128+207A/2MFGC 09014/PGC 035485, an Sc edge on spiral for those keeping a scorecard. Further south near the bottom of the frame is CGCG 126-075/PGC 035498 . a barred spiral. I moved Arp 197 high to capture it as it appeared interesting. But now that I found redshift data on it we know it isn't involved. In fact, it is related to KUG 1128+207A as both have almost exactly the same redshift.

Northeast of Arp 197 is a cute pair of galaxies, MCG +04-27-055. Unfortunately, there's no redshift data on the lower galaxy. Are they a true pair? Are they interacting? Or are they just two in the same line of sight? For now, I vote for the latter. More unanswered questions.

You probably noticed the group of distant galaxies in the upper right corner of my image. This is the Abell galaxy cluster 1278. It is listed with a diameter of 30 minutes of arc though most are in a smaller area. The label marks the center of the group as defined at NED. It is listed at 1.65 billion light-years

There's not much redshift data on this field. What there is I've shown on the annotated image. Lots of interesting galaxies aren't labeled with distance due to this lack of data.

There are 4 asteroids in the image. They too are noted on the annotated image. While the Minor Planet Center shows their estimated magnitudes range from 19.2 to 20.4 they all appear virtually the same brightness in my image. Apparently, their magnitude estimates aren't all that accurate.

(236266) 2005 YS181 magnitude 19.3
(242571) 2005 EQ330 magnitude 19.9
(59458) 1999 GM41 magnitude 19.2
(77687) 2001 NT6 magnitude 20.4

Star shapes are rather odd. This night started out rainy so I didn't open up the observatory. Suddenly the clouds parted and seeing was quite good but the tube hadn't had time to come to temperature. Not wanting to lose any more imaging time than necessary I rushed the cool down time and paid for it in tube currents in the first two L images. The last two were pretty good but the first lousy and second fair. This is the result. They didn't seem to harm the image of the galaxy but sure did the brighter stars.

Arp's image
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp197.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP197

ARP198

Arp was a very careful observer at the time of his Atlas but he missed seeing this one correctly. As his work on the atlas progressed he slowly developed some very strange ideas about galaxies emitting objects, such as quasars. At first, he seemed to use this category in a purely descriptive way. Meaning it looked like the galaxy's core had emitted something but not that it really did. Later he seemed to decide it was possible they did. Was this entry an influence in this direction?

Arp 198 is one Arp misunderstood. He classed it under "Galaxies: Material ejected from Nuclei." His note indicates he saw this one as a spiral with a huge spike when he says; "Spike points toward small nucleus; no spectra available [subsequently determined redshifts were consistent]." In fact, this is two separate galaxies, both spirals, one face on that is in front of an edge on spiral hiding much of the eastern side of the core (which is visible in the POSS 2 near IR plate). I would have thought this rather obvious even in monochromatic images. Apparently not. Today's color images, like mine, make this very obvious.

Arp 198 is located in central Leo at a distance of about 414 to 420 million light-years depending on whose redshift data you use. Sloan says 420 The face on spiral is UGC 6073b and VV 267a and is classed simply as a spiral. The edge on is UGC 6073a and VV 267b which is classed as S?.

I see no indication these are interacting. I find only one redshift listed for the face on spiral which is the 414 million light-year figure. The same source puts the edge on at 415 but the Sloan survey says 420 million light-years. In any case, these support the idea the face on is well in front of the edge on. While they are members of the same group they aren't interacting. They may in the future depending on their relative motion.

On the eastern edge of my image is NGC 3487/UGC 6092 (discovered by Lewis Swift on March 5, 1886) at the same distance as Arp 198. It forms a pair with UGC 6092a a bit further east according to the CGCG catalog. A note says that this pair forms a triplet with Arp 198. Oddly the CGCG catalog considers Arp 198 as a pair of galaxies. So shouldn't they say a quadruplet? Or does that note date back to Arp's time when he may have thought Arp 198 as one galaxy?

Many other interesting galaxies lack redshift data in this image that I'd like to know about. This is the best NED can do however.

There are three asteroids in the image that survived processing. A fourth was seen on the FITS but once color data was added was extremely hard to see. I cheated and increased its brightness some. The asteroids are:

(116629) 2004 BD122 magnitude 18.7
2010 ED104 magnitude 20.2
2008 WF12 magnitude 20.4
2008 UW352 magnitude 20.7 (brightened slightly to increase visibility)

Asteroids get a number after being recovered after having a good orbital determination for one full orbit. Thus three of these have yet to complete one orbit since discovery.

I had two nasty spikes caused by something on my filters. The lower one was both on the luminance and red filters while the upper right one was only on the luminance filters and faded over the course of the 4 frames. Apparently this was a light fog of some sort on the filters that was very localized. Never saw it like this before, especially on two filters exactly the same. That is very weird. I didn't try to process this out as when I have in the past it has looked worse than leaving them in. I did tone down the red color of that spike however.

Arp's image
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp198.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP198

ARP199

Arp 199 is a pair of apparently interacting galaxies in Bootes about 150 million light-years distant. The pair consists of NGC 5544 and NGC 5545 right (west) to left (east). Arp's classed them under his very odd category of "Material Ejected from Nuclei". While that may apply to Arp 337 (M82) he didn't put it in this category. I have no idea what he meant as the ejected material. The entire NGC 5545? His comment would say otherwise: "Spirals appear disturbed".

NGC 5544 looks like a barred spiral with an inner ring connected to the bar and a nearly equally bright outer ring not connected to the bar. Other than the double ring it doesn't appear all that disturbed to me though parts of it are hidden behind the obviously closer NGC 5545. NED classes it as (R)SB(rs)0/a. The NGC Project disagrees saying it is an ordinary Sa spiral with no bar. Sure looks like a bar to me.

NGC 5545 appears to be a somewhat disturbed spiral. NED classes it SA(s)bc while the NGC Project say Sb-c using its simpler system. At least they agree on this one. Redshift puts NGC 5545 slightly further away which can't be correct since it is hiding part of NGC 5544 which is slightly closer by redshift alone. The difference is due to both measuring accuracy and relative velocity. Thus NGC 5544 is moving toward NGC 5545 so the collision, if there is one, is still in the future. What we can't measure is the lateral velocity. It could be that NGC 5545 will have moved to the side by the time NGC 5544 gets to its distance.

The other NGC galaxy is NGC 5557 in the lower left of my image. Its distance by redshift is slightly greater than Arp 199. Still, it is quite likely they are part of the same group of galaxies. The NGC project classes it simply as E. It certainly is an elliptical. NED calls it E1 and a note at NED says it is classic E2. These classifications would indicate it is slightly elongated which it appears to be in my image.

NGC 5544 was discovered by William Herschel on May 1, 1785
NGC 5545 was discovered by John Herschel on April 27, 1827 though some credit it to Bindon Stoney on April 10, 1852.
NGC 5557 was discovered by William Herschel also on May 1, 1785.

Only NGC 5557 is in the Herschel 400 programs (first one). My notes with my 10" f/5 at 120x on the fair but humid night of May 17, 1985 reads: "Small round, puff of a galaxy, suddenly brighter toward the center." It doesn't look all that small in my image. I assume I wasn't seeing its full size.

In making the annotated image I accidentally ran across three galaxies not in NED's database even though many far fainter and smaller galaxies were included. Two of the three are very blue which seems to often be the case. Some systematic error must be at play here. The three are marked by a question mark. I didn't search for others so likely there are more in the image.

In a previous post, I mentioned a faint glow to the northeast of Arp 199. In this higher resolution image thanks to better seeing it is still there but much fainter. Most of the glow has now broken up into many very faint galaxies that seeing blended together. I'm going to guess the remaining glow is due to even fainter background galaxies though no cluster is shown at its position.

The position of the BCG is listed as A cluster's center but with a slightly different redshift. The cluster's redshift was determined photographically while the BCG was apparently done spectroscopically which is more accurate. I put a "P" after the photographically determined distance.

There's an asteroid in the image, (26383) 1999 MA2, that gives away the order of my frames as at magnitude 17.1 the color frames were strong enough to color the background sky. The lost blue frame shows up as a gap between the end of the green frames and first blue frame. The added blue frame, mostly after moonrise, follows the luminance trail.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp199.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=5x10 RGB=2x10x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP199

ARP200

Information on the area of Arp 200, NGC 1134, is quite limited. Arp classified it as "Galaxies not classifiable as S(piral) or E(lliptical): material ejected from nuclei". I'm not all that sure what he is referring to. There is a tidal splash coming from the north end of the galaxy heading east toward UGC 02362. This seems the most likely explanation. Arp did frame his image to show this faint feature. The galaxy at the bottom is IC 0267. All three are related as they all lie at a distance of about 150 million light years. There's no information on the other galaxies in the field as to distance. The only other galaxy of any size is LEDA 213115 to the west of UGC 02362. There are many distant galaxies in the image but I couldn't find anything on them.

NGC 1134 was discovered by William Herschel on October 16, 1784. It isn't in either of the Herschel 400 observing programs. IC 267 was discovered by Lewis Swift on November 8, 1887.

Arp's image: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp200.jpeg

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

See my entry for IC 1134 for a better image and discussion.

Related Designations for ARP200

ARP201

Arp 201/UGC 224 is a pair of galaxies located about 824 to 830 million light years distant (depending on which redshift value you use) and is located in the constellation of Pisces near its border with Cetus. The pair are usually considered as interacting. Arp's note reads: "VV connection between galaxies not seen here or on Survey prints." I can't see a connection on my image either. However, a 1986 note at NED reads: "Interacting pair of E (south) and S0 (north) galaxies. Faint matter is ejected northward from the latter." Is it this "faint matter" that caught Arp's eye? He has it classed under galaxies with matter ejected from nuclei. The note's authors consider these stars, dust and gas as being ejected by some force from the northern galaxy. More likely it is some sort of tidal plume and could have come from either galaxy. It is quite a bit bluer than either galaxy. That would indicate that mostly dust and gas was pulled from one of the galaxies and has formed into new stars since the plume was created. It could be a third galaxy hiding behind the other two. In fact, I'm leaning to that idea.

Kanipe and Webb see the three patches of light that come out of the southern galaxy's southeast side and go south as the ejected material. These are clearly background galaxies. Though in Arp's image they are just faint smudges. Same in mine though I only pick up the two brighter ones with a hint of the fainter one closest to the southern galaxy. I suppose it is possible this is what Arp referred to but without more to go on I vote for the northern galaxy's blue plume or third galaxy. It may even come from the southern galaxy I've included a DR8 release image of this object. Note the two brighter background galaxies in Kanipe's and Webb's opinion that are the ejected material are quite different colors with the northern reddish while the southern is slightly blue. Neither were strong enough for me to get sufficient color data so they appear white in my image. NED identifies the two brightest as SDSS J002338.56-003049.9 (north) and SDSS J002338.71-003059.7 (south). The faint northernmost object isn't listed in NED at all though one not seen in Arp's image but faintly visible in the SDSS image is. Therefore I think it a faint foreground star. It appears starlike in both the Arp and the SDSS images.

None of this means Arp didn't think these objects were ejected from the southern galaxy. He held, and still holds I believe, that quasars are ejected from active galaxies. So he could see these two galaxies and a star as objects ejected from the galaxy. In any case, the blue feature above the northern galaxy is what makes this one interesting to me.

While the note indicates the southern galaxy is an elliptical and the northern S0, NED abstains from classifying them at all. To me, I'd say the notes classifications appear reasonable.

As mentioned, Arp considered quasars as being emitted from active galaxies. Several going out to nearly 11 billion light-years are in the image as well as some Ultraviolet Excess objects that are likely quasars. Unfortunately for Arp's theory, their redshifts are wrong. His weird idea is that whatever it is a galaxy ejects that we call a quasar, it's redshift increases with time. Thus, if it is close to the galaxy it was released recently and has a low redshift while those further out have higher redshifts. Since we can't see in 3D how we are to determine which are close to it I don't know. The example Kanipe and Webb gives seems to rely on simple 2D angular distance which makes no sense to me. Maybe I'm missing something. In any case using 2D distances, the redshifts appear rather random in this image. Many more are just off the edges of my image in all directions. They too have a similar random spread of redshift values.

Several galaxy clusters are found in the image. The one marked GC 3.0 is an estimated 3 billion light years distant and has some 40 galaxies within a radius of 2.15 minutes of arc. The label is placed at the center coordinate. In the past, with an annotated image I labeled galaxies with a G, quasars with a Q etc. Recently I've received complaints that they couldn't find what a "G 0.35" was in any catalog. For this one, if it is a galaxy only the distance in billions of light years is noted. Some objects NED lists both as a quasar and an Ultraviolet Excess Source (UvES). In some cases, it lists the quasar designation first and other UvES first. I assume this is due to positional differences of a fraction of a second of arc rather than a preference. I think it safe to consider them quasars, even those only listed as UvES. In any case, if both were used I show both in the order NED listed them.

The annotated image shows only two galaxies closer than the Arp 201 group. I say group since two other galaxies in the image are at a similar redshift distance so it is likely that all 4 are related. Other than these 6 galaxies, everything else NED had a redshift value for, are over a billion light years distant (other than the 4 asteroids of course). Oddly, all 4 asteroids are bunched in the lower left quadrant.

After I wrote the above Jeff Kanipe sent me an image from the VV catalog that appears to show a connection between the two galaxies and is likely the cause for Arp's comment. Comparing the image to the POSS 1 plates it appears if you enhance greatly certain pixels in that digitized image you get exactly the same "connection". To do this you have to not similarly enhance other pixels of these values over the image. I tried taking many deep images in H alpha, blue and red light, far deeper than the POSS 1 plates and failed to see even a hint of this connection. I enhanced them every which way but no such connection appeared. I think the VV image may be due to overactive processing of grain in the POSS 1 plates. I've attached the VV image Jeff sent me so you can do your own comparison. Note the connection is brighter in this image than the plume both Arp and I imaged. It does, if real, indicate this plume comes from the southern galaxy. But why the SDSS, Arp nor I or any other image I found show this "brighter" feature? Could it be polarized? That I couldn't test. I have no information on the particulars of the VV image.

Arp's image
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp201.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP201

ARP202

Arp 202 is a pair of interacting galaxies about 150 million light-years from us in southern Lynx. Arp classed them under Galaxies not classifiable as E or S; Material ejected from nuclei. I'm not sure what "material" he is referring to. He comments; "Faint tail from small galaxy". I don't know if this refers to the faint fuzz at the west end of it or the three objects that trail to the west. The first is just a star, at least it isn't in the SDSS. The other two are separate galaxies per the SDSS though no redshift is provided. To me, they appear far distant galaxies though the Kanipe-Webb book considers this the tail. I see no difference between these two and a third galaxy directly below the eastern (middle of the three objects) galaxy. Arp became obsessed with the idea of galaxies ejecting objects and it appears his opinion of this pair may have colored by this concept. A note at NED says; "Faint fragments to east of smaller object." Seems no one really knows what Arp was referring to.

Arp 202 is composed of two galaxies NGC 2719 and 2719A. Both are classed as Im pec. The third major galaxy in the image is the nice two arm spiral, NGC 2724, SAB(s)c, with a redshift that puts it about 5 million light-years further away than Arp 202. Such a difference is immaterial so it is considered a member of the same group as Arp 202. There are two small galaxies to its right. The red one has a redshift indicating a distance of a bit over 1.4 billion light-years. Oddly, the blue spiral above it isn't in the NED SDSS database. It has hundreds of far fainter galaxies in this field but not this rather bright one. Nor could I find any entry for it at NED or SIMBAD.

The small elongated almost double looking galaxy SE of Arp 202 is SDSS J090028.22+354009.8, also a member of the Arp 202 system. The blue spindle galaxy NE of Arp 202 is SDSS J090029.38+354840.6 and is also a member of the Arp 202 group. Halfway between Arp 202 and the last galaxy is a very orange galaxy just above a brighter blue star. This galaxy is SDSS J090029.38+354840.6 and is about 1.4 billion light-years distant.

In keeping with the trend that blue is a member of the Arp 202 group and red isn't we come to SDSS J090043.64+354829.0 directly east of the blue spindle. It is 1.1 billion light-years away. The relatively large red spindle NW of Arp 202 is SDSS J085935.91+355242.6 and it is almost 1.4 billion light-years from us as is SDSS J085939.37+355413.7, the round red galaxy to its northeast. The spindle galaxy is very unsymmetrical with a far fatter and brighter disk to the SE than to the NW of the core. I wonder what caused that. Is the disk warped so we see it more face on to the SE or is it really less massive to the NW? Between the spindle at 1.1 billion light-years and Arp 202, much nearer the former is another rather bright reddish galaxy. It is SDSS J085943.03+355048.9 at a bit under 1 billion light-years.

I've made an annotated image with the distances in billions of light-years noted. Several other galaxies and a quasar are in the image that are also noted on this image beside these I've mentioned. The interesting thing is that one of the galaxies is actually more distant, not by much, than one of the quasars in the image. Both are over 3 billion light years distant. But the quasar at 8.4 billion light years is a lot further away. Of course, Arp likely wouldn't agree and might say they were emitted by Arp 202 rather recently. The most distant quasar in the image is also the brightest. This Arp would jump on instantly. Its redshift puts it at 11.65 billion light-years away. The photons I captured have traveled more than twice the age of our solar system and possibly longer than our galaxy even existed. In fact, the light left when the universe was only about 2 billion years old. It boggles the mind to think about.

One of the distant galaxies I've noted but not mentioned yet is SDSS J090107.85+353657.1 at 1.8 billion light-years near the bottom of the image. It is a 22nd magnitude galaxy hiding behind a much brighter star. You may have to enlarge the image to see that there are two objects there. The galaxy is sticking out of the western side of the star. Nearby to the NW is SDSS J090121.47+353908.0 at 1.6 billion light years that appears to be a blue star. But the magnitude and position exactly match a galaxy in the SDSS so I assume it is correct. Also, the PSF (how the light varies across the object) is typical of a galaxy and very atypical of the known stars in this part of the image. So appearances can be deceiving.

NGC 2719 was discovered on March 28, 1786 by William Herschel. It isn't in either of the Herschel 400 observing programs. NGC 2724 was found by his son John Herschel on February 7, 1832.

Arp's image is at: http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp202.jpeg

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey image of Arp 202 is at:
http://astronomerica.awardspace.com/SDSS-18/NGC2719.php

The SDSS image for NGC 2724:
http://astronomerica.awardspace.com/SDSS-18/NGC2724.php
Their filters don't show the color difference between the two galaxies on its western side that my image shows. They use a different mix of filters that does alter the color balance from what the eye would see if it could see such faint color. This helps greatly in their scientific analysis but does make for sometimes misleading images. Other times the color is reasonably correct. I've not determined why the variation.

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

Related Designations for ARP202

ARP203

Arp 203/NGC 3712 is located about 90 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major just across the border from Leo. In fact, the south edge of my image is only a few seconds of arc into Ursa Major. Arp put it in his category for galaxies with material ejected from nucleus. His comment says "Faint plumes coming off both ends of bar." Is this the material? They look like plumes rather than ejected material but then Arp had the idea galaxies ejected things and plumes weren't all that well understood in the 60's when he put his atlas together. NED classes it as SB? as does the NGC project.

The "bar" is rather broken up. It consists of three bright parts. A lower elongated piece and two round pieces north of it oriented at an angle to the lower piece. Further north are two faint condensations. The northern one brighter and designated by the SDSS as a separate galaxy with no redshift given. Arp 203 does have one obvious companion or galaxy at about the same distance near the same line of sight. It is SDSS J113119.85+283125.0 at 83 million light years. It's a rather featureless galaxy that NED makes no attempt to categorize. Both are rather small galaxies. Since it is undistorted I doubt it is the cause of the plumes seen coming from Arp 203. Could it be a merger? The multiple bright blobs in the core would seem to make this a possibility. I found no papers discussing anything about its plumes other than pure descriptions. Though I didn't search very deep. Still, it seems to be a poorly studied galaxy.

NGC 3712 was discovered by William Herschel on April 11, 1785. It is in neither of the Herschel 400 observing programs. Some sources equate it with 3714 discovered by his son John on March 26, 1827. Others say John found a somewhat brighter galaxy to the southeast just out of my image. Oddly Seligman gives the position for this out of field galaxy for NGC 3712. Yet equates the two with 3712. Errors like this aren't unexpected when dealing with such a large number of objects.

In the upper left corner, you can find ZwCl 1129.4+2858, a galaxy cluster of unknown distance with 68 members in an 11' field. The label marks the center. Most that I see are to the upper left of that position. But redshift distances of galaxies within 5.5 minutes of the center all have very different values ranging from 2.3 to 5 billion light-years. At least the galaxies with redshift values are just a line of sight group rather than a true cluster of gravitationally bound galaxies. If there's a true cluster here redshift values aren't disclosing it.

Arp's image
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp203.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP203

ARP204

If there is ever a freak show for galaxies this mess would be the headliner.

Arp 204 is a two or three galaxy mash-up in northern Camelopardalis less than 6 degrees from the pole. The VV, CGCG and CGPG catalogs call it three while NED and the UGC say it is two. Arp is mum on this having no comment. He did put it in his oddball class for galaxies with "material ejected from nuclei". What he sees as ejected from what is not mentioned. The CGPG has this note on it: "Blue post-eruptive triple galaxy, interconnected by pronounced thin bridge, length 2' south-southwest to north-northeast." Oddly, NED shows positions for only two of the three CGCG galaxies. I have to assume it is the same as the VV catalog sees but since it isn't in NED this is only a guess. NED lists the third VV member as part of a galaxy rather than a separate galaxy. It is the blue blob at the southwest end Arp 204. I've pointed these various objects out on the annotated image.

There is another interesting pair of possibly interacting galaxies, UGC 8394. While NED makes no attempt to classify any part of Arp 204 it does classify the northeastern galaxy of UGC 8394 as Sb and the southwest member as "compact". That is usually reserved for a small, mostly round, tight, nearly featureless ball of stars. This looks to me to be a rather tight spiral, possibly a dense Sa galaxy. I've never seen a compact galaxy with such a prominent spiral structure before. A note at NED says they are interacting. The NE galaxy shows a faint plume to the northeast and one to the southwest connects the two galaxies. So yes, they are likely interacting. The dense southwest galaxy is likely inflicting most of the damage. The CGPG says: "Pair of interconnected galaxies. No. 1, patchy blue compact, m_p_ = 15.7. No. 2, neutral Sb, 40" north-following No. 1, m_p_ = 17.0." NED has no redshift data on the pair, unfortunately.

South of both Arp 204 and UGC 8394 is UGC 8414, a Sm spiral about 200 million light-years distant. It appears to be somewhat closer than Arp 204. There is something just off its southeastern (lower left) arm. I can't tell for sure if it is another galaxy or just a somewhat detached star cloud of UGC 8414. There are several other galaxies in the immediate area. None are listed at NED.

At the very top of the image is UGC 8380. NED lists it as Scd: saying it would be a rather open armed spiral if we could see it more face on. Again no redshift data is available. In fact, only one other galaxy in my image has a redshift value at NED. That puts it about 2.1 billion light-years out. While NED doesn't classify this very distant galaxy, it does indicate it is a narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxy. I've listed by catalog name every galaxy NED lists for my image. When you get only a few degrees from the pole (less than 6 in this case) NED has very little coverage. The vast majority of them aren't listed at NED at all. Most that are, as you can see from the annotated image are from the 2MASS survey of galaxies with strong emission at 2 microns. This is a region that falls between normal infrared and radio frequencies.

Arp's image with the 200" scope
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp204.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP204

ARP205

Arp 205 is classed by Arp under "Material Ejected From Nucleus". It is also known as NGC 3448 with the nearby, very faint spiral cataloged as "companion" by Arp and UGC 6013/PGC 32740 by everyone else. I assume the "Material ejected From Nucleus" is the large bright lump somewhat disconnected from the galaxy at the upper left rather than the tidal arms. Arp made no comment to help us know what he was seeing. Kanipe and Webb don't offer any suggestions either. Radial velocity puts NGC 3448 at 70 million light years and UGC 6016 at 77 million light years. These distances are likely somewhat wrong as the redshift of both has been altered by their passage by each other. They are likely closer than these measurements imply. UGC 6013 is described by a note at NED as being a disrupted galaxy. This certainly is possible.

Arp included a classification for galaxies that he thought resembled the integral sign. Arp 205 seems to have a dust lane that resembles the integral sign better than any of his galaxies do. NGC 3448 was discovered by William Herschel on April 17, 1789.

Above and a slight bit right of NGC 3448 is the galaxy cluster ZwCl 1051.4+5440. It has two major elliptical galaxies but only one, the one on the left, has attracted a following. The one on the right has only one obvious nearby companion. At the very lower left corner of the full image, a few outlying members of another cluster ZwCl 1053.4+5427 are seen. The former is about 2.1 billion light-years away light travel time while the latter has yet to have its distance measured that I can find. Just not enough grad students to do the work it would seem. The entire field is full of faint, very distant galaxies most of which have not been measured for their distance.

Arp's image: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp205.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP205