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DescriptionImages

ARP206

ARP 206/NGC 3432 is cataloged by Arp as a spiral with "material ejected from the nuclei." That apparently refers to the blob of material at the upper left end of the galaxy as all others in this category have similar detached pieces though he has a category for detached arms that would seem to also fit. The distortion seems caused by interaction with UGC 05983 a dwarf galaxy at the lower right end of the galaxy. The distance to Arp 206 is also rather hard to come by. Redshift data says 40 to 50 million light years though since these are likely orbiting each other this value is somewhat questionable. This seems to be one of the lesser studied Arp galaxies. Anyone looking for a Ph.D. thesis might find good hunting here. Edit: When I wrote this in 2008 I didn't realize how interesting it was -- see below.

The galaxy was discovered on March 19, 1787 by William Herschel. It is in the original Herschel 400 observing program. My note on it from April 15, 1985 with my 10" f/5 at 50 to 150x under rather bad humidity reads: "Large, edge on galaxy evenly bright. Hard to see without averted vision due to humidity. At 50x its easier to see but much of it is lost in 12th magnitude field stars."

This is where my story ended in 2008. Then, nearly 10 years later I learned what an amazing story I totally missed.

This image was taken March 21, 2008 UT. At the time I did no research on my images. Big mistake, especially in this case. If I'd even compared my image to Arp's I'd have seen a star in the galaxy in my image but not his. It is annotated in the cropped image. It is SN 2000ch. Yeah, 2000 not 2008. SN don't stay bright for 8 years. So something very unusual is going on here. When seen in 2000 it was considered a blue variable star in our galaxy but once redshift was taken it became a nova in this galaxy. But it was too bright for any nova. That caused it to be reclassified as a type IIn supernova and got its SN name. The only problem is it has blown several more times while SN blow up totally leaving nothing to erupt a second time. It was not seen in February 2008 but was when I took my image a month later. It was also seen in October of that year. I find nothing between my image and the October one. So what is going on here? It is now thought to be an LBV, Luminous Blue Variable. These erupt several times with periods of months to decades and longer. Eta Carina is the most well-known example with a very long period. Eventually, it is thought, they will blow in a true supernova. Why they have these outbursts is unknown. In my case, I just happened to catch it while in eruption. One paper shows a period of 200 to 225 days. If so, it faded between my March image and the October image. How long they stay bright seems to vary as well. Here are links to two papers others pointed out to me about this.
http://inspirehep.net/record/857000/plots
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.1086/382997.pdf

I totally missed this until Derek Santiago took an image of it in 2018 https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/608373-supernova-imposter/ , saw the object again in eruption and did some investigation. He found it likely an LBV but not much else. He posted it and others dug in and found the links above. Not knowing anything about this I just happened to take my image during an outburst. Dumb luck to have caught one of its outbursts.

Arp's image: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp206.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=1x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME


NGC3432ARP206L4X10RGB1X10X3R2CROP125.JPG


NGC3432ARP206L4X10RGB1X10X3R3-ID.JPG


NGC3432ARP206L4X10RGB1X10X3R3-SN2000chCROP125.JPG


NGC3432ARP206L4X10RGB1X10X3R3.JPG

ARP207

Arp 207 is located in western Draco near the border with Camelopardalis. Redshift puts it about 100 million light-years away. Arp put it in his category for galaxies with material ejected from the nucleus. He seemed to think some features we now consider to be tidal in nature to be material that somehow the core ejected; rather than stars, dust and gas pulled from the outer reaches of galaxies by tidal forces. He left no comment on this one making his feelings on this one somewhat vague other than its category.

I found very little in the literature. Vorontsov and Velyaminov put it in their category for galaxy pairs with satellites on a stem -- Bottle forms. They describe this form as having "...dwarf satellites connected to the primary by a short thin filament, mostly normal to the surface of the latter. This recalls a mushroom sitting on its stem. It is noteworthy that most primaries appear to be spheroidal, not spiral." However, Arp 207 (VV58) is not listed as being typical of the group, likely because the primary is likely a spiral. So they consider it a pair of interacting galaxies, one a dwarf. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?1977A%26AS...28....1V -- a 42 meg PDF so be warned.

The UGC catalog has a different opinion. It is UGC 5050 in their catalog and carries this notation: "Asymmetric -- Short jet-shaped feature in position angle 50." No mention of a dwarf galaxy being involved. But the position angle bothers me. Normally position angle is measured from celestial north (top of my image) through east (left in my image). This gives me a position angle for the jet of about 226 degrees. If measured from the end of the jet to the main galaxy that would be about 46 degrees. Odd way to do it, however.

I prefer the VV catalog take on this one. Note that the entire system is slightly curved with the core slightly north of a line connecting both ends of the system. This would indicate some sort of interaction.

To the northeast (seen in the enlarged cropped image) is CGCG 350-026. NED has nothing on it. Is it related to Arp 207? It certainly looks odd. Reminds me of a distorted Star Trek logo. Is that a star north of the core or part of the galaxy? An odd V-shaped (greater than symbol) comes in from the east ending in a bright region west of the core. Unfortunately, I was unable to find an image of this one on the net with greater resolution than my shot. For now, I'm calling it the Star Trek Logo Galaxy. http://www.beyondhollywood.com/uploads/2011/09/Star-Trek-Logo.png rotated 90 degrees clockwise. Or maybe a NASA logo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nasa-logo.gif .

NED has no distance data on any other galaxy in the image nor are many of them even listed. This far north, 76.5°, coverage is very poor.

Arp's image with the 200" telescope has south up while I post my images north up. The notch in Arp's images usually indicates north in his atlas (at least one exception). Note how the field star partly lost in the overexposed galaxy appears out of round in his image. I can't explain this other than an illusion due to how the emulsion he used reacts to "flashing". This effect caused an asteroid track in Arp 192 to appear curved. The star is round in my image.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp207.jpeg

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


ARP207L4X10RGB2X10-CROP150.JPG


ARP207L4X10RGB2X10.JPG

ARP208

Arp 208, also known as CGCG 252-007, is a pair of interacting galaxies a bit over 400 million light-years away seen against northern Hercules. Redshift data is available only for the eastern galaxy. Arp classed this pair under: Galaxies (not classifiable as S or E), material ejected from nuclei. We now know what he was seeing were pieces tidally pulled from these galaxies rather than ejected. Individually they are cataloged as MCG+08-31-010 and MCG+08-31-011, left to right. The Kanipe-Webb book though has them reversed. While that does fit normal RA ordering it doesn't match any of the catalogs I consulted. There's no consensus on how to classify these two. Most either don't try or say S?. VV catalog calls both irregular. The edge on nearby is MCG+08-31-09, an Sd spiral with the same redshift as Arp 208 so a nearby member. Arp had no comment on this entry and I find little useful on it in the literature. CGCG catalog considers this a 3 galaxy system with the note: "Triple system [with] bridges." I don't see any sign of a bridge to the edge on spiral. NED lists the western part (MCG+08-31-11) as being a rejected quasar rather than a galaxy. Gives a photometric distance of 7 billion light-years and a brightness of 20.9. That's very strange series of what appears to be mistakes.

The lack of information continues to the entire field. NED has no redshift or other distance data on any other galaxy in the image. I debated about an annotated image and decided to post one with names of galaxies. There's one Quasar in the image, PC 1650+4713. It is noted by distance in the lower left corner. I've noted a few obvious galaxies that aren't listed in NED or the SDSS. I find this is rather common. I don't know why. This image was taken through a rather thick haze which created a nasty haze around many stars making them look like galaxies. Usually, the PSF of the object will give away a galaxy. Only those with no entry and a PSF that was obviously that of a galaxy are marked "No Entry". Most others are stars with nasty halos. The haze also limited my image to about magnitude 21.75 rather than my normal 22.5 to 23. Still, it stabilized my seeing quite a bit allowing me to reproduce this image at 0.67 seconds per pixel rather than my usual 1" though I've provided a 1" per pixel version as well. The annotated image is at 1" per pixel however to save bandwidth.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp208.jpeg

14" LX 200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME


ARP208L4X10RGB2X10X3-ID.JPG


ARP208L4X10RGB2X10X3R-CROP150.JPG


ARP208L4X10RGB2X10X3R.JPG

ARP209

Arp 209/NGC 6052/64 is a rather well studied Luminous IR galaxy. To me, it is simply a mess of galaxy parts in Hercules, just north of the famous galaxy clusters in this constellation. It is about 220 million light-years away. Arp put it in his class of galaxies with irregularities, absorption and resolution. His comment read: "Chaotic with loops." I really don't see those "loops" in his image, but plenty of knots. This galaxy was recorded twice in the NGC catalog, not because it was recognized as two galaxies but because of a position error. NGC 6052's position was the more accurate so is the designation usually found for this galaxy pair. It was first found by William Herschel on June 11, 1784 but he got the position somewhat wrong resulting in the NGC 6064 designation. 80 years later on July 2, 1864 got the position right resulting in the NGC 6052 designation.

In Arp's time, most papers considered it one galaxy though a few said it was two interacting or merging spiral galaxies. Today is it clearly a pair of galaxies that are merging. The attached HST image made from two plates at the HST legacy site clearly shows one to be a face on spiral. The other, to its left, is mostly a vertical strip of stars. Some papers say it is also a spiral, others an irregular galaxy. NED calls the obvious spiral on the right an Sc. One place it adds Pec. It does the same for the left galaxy. Hard to agree or disagree with that. One paper says: "The interpretation of Mkn 297 as the merger of two disk galaxies is inconsistent with the findings by Burenkov (1988), who concludes from spectroscopic observations that the abundance gradients of nitrogen and oxygen are only consistent with one spiral galaxy; the second galaxy is probably an irregular."

In any case, those knots, as well as the bright cores, are areas of tremendous star formation. Most are O to A0 one paper says.

William Herschel discovered this pair on June 11, 1784 causing Dreyer to list it as NGC 6064 in the NGC. On July 2, 1864 Albert Marth found it. Dreyer gave his entry the NGC 6052 entry. The HST take on this pair is at http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1552a/

In processing the color for this one I thought I had really screwed it up. The Sloan image shows the galaxy to be shades of blue with no hint of a golden core. But my color came out very different. Nowhere was it as blue (likely the vivid blue is due to UV light from the O stars) and it had hints of reddish areas. Then I assembled a color image from HST data at the HST legacy site and those resolved red dust lanes and some apparent H alpha regions right where my reds were located. So I made no adjustments and went with what I had. I do need to redo this under better skies. I'd originally decided this one couldn't be saved but after the great results of Arp 220 taken under similar conditions, I decided to give it a go. I'm glad I did but still a bit unsure if the color is right. I couldn't find any other color images on the net of this one. HST image made from a deep red filter of 707nm and a green filter at 555nm. The latter was assigned blue and a pseudo green was created. This was the best I could do with the filtered images available. Obviously, those colors are not correct. Still, they tend to reflect what I got for what that's worth.

As usual, I prepared an annotated image showing distances in billions of light years to galaxies and quasars. One galaxy near the bottom right of center looks quite active. It is 2MASX J16043802+2024143 so strong at 2 microns and is also known as NVSS J160436+202422 (NRAO VLA Sky Survey) so a strong radio galaxy. Lots going on in this one but I found little else on it. So it is just labeled by name. Further west (right) is a trio of galaxies, none with redshift data and the northern, noted by a question mark isn't even in NED's database! I tend to find one an image without really trying.

Arp's image
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp209.jpeg

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


ARP209L4X10RGB2X10X3R-CROP150.JPG


ARP209L4X10RGB2X10X3R-ID.JPG


ARP209L4X10RGB2X10X3R.JPG


HST_A209.JPG

ARP210

Arp 210 is one I started imaging last winter. Again clouds made getting the data difficult. I wanted some Halpha data to this one but the clouds wouldn't let it happen. I forgot about it until suddenly the Hubble site featured it in a press release. So a few nights ago I went back and got some H alpha data. I wanted two hours but only was able to get one before again clouds moved in and now the moon will be in the way when the clouds go away so decided to process what I had since Hubble already scooped me on this one.

Also known as NGC 1569, it is a dwarf galaxy about 11 million light-years distant. NED classifies it as IBm;Sbrst Sy1 meaning it is an irregular galaxy of the Magellanic type with a bar, starburst activity and a very active core reaching Seyfert 1 class. It is one of the most active, if not the most active starburst galaxy known in our region of the galaxy. M82 is the most often imaged by amateurs but NGC 1569 makes M82 look like a placid galaxy by comparison. It is much smaller and for a long time thought to be closer as well. Starburst galaxies are created when they pass by another galaxy and the tidal forces compress cold gas in the galaxy triggering massive star formation. But NGC 1569 is a lone galaxy (we thought). There's nothing around it today (we thought). Hubble discovered that instead of 7 million light years away it was really 11 million light years away. The problem is this is a heavily obscured galaxy, hidden behind the dust and gas of our galaxy. This made determining its distance difficult. Now it appears this galaxy is a member of the Maffei/IC 342 group and is likely being squished by the gravity of all the other members of the group. Other well-known members of the group are Maffei 1 and 2. All of these are located in the constellation of Camelopardalis (the giraffe). It was discovered by William Herschel on November 4, 1788. It didn't make either of the Herschel 400 observing programs.

You can read about what Hubble found at:
http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2008-38
The Hubble image is taken solely in Hydrogen Alpha light as well as some other narrow elemental bands to show all the ionized hydrogen being thrown out of the galaxy by the solar gales created by the massive stars formed in the galaxy. Thus this process is actually stripping the galaxy of its dust and gas such that it likely will not have any left in a few more hundred millions of years. At least none that is cold enough to form stars.

In my image, only the areas in which ionized hydrogen light is brighter than that of the massive stars show as pink while in the Hubble image that was basically the only light used so starlight is suppressed allowing the hydrogen to dominate the image. In astronomy, the wavelengths used to image an object can make it look very different and how they are combined can make a great difference as well.

Arp's image: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp210.jpeg

14" LX200R A f/10, Ha=2x30' L=4x10' RGB=2x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME


NGC1569L4X10HA2X30RGB2X10X3.JPG


NGC1569L4X10HA2X30RGB2X10X3CROPR.JPG

ARP211

Arp 211/UGCA 290 is a dwarf galaxy in Canes Venatici. It is a possible member of the Canes Venatici (CVn) galaxy cloud. Arp put it in his atlas under Galaxies: Irregularities, Absorption and Resolution -- whatever that means. His image of it is one of the best he took with the 200" resolving it into stars. I wasn't able to do that on the night I took it. I need a night of better seeing. I only picked up the brightest one and hints of a few others. While redshift data puts it a bit over 30 million light-years out this seems way too far for such resolution. Studies with the Russian 6-meter telescope using those bright blue stars put its distance at more like 10 million light-years though a more recent study using the tip of the red branch puts it at 22 million light-years. If the former it would likely be a member of the CVn group (a subgroup of the CVn Cloud that includes M94). Most lists of the group don't include this galaxy. Still, 22 million light-years seems a bit far to me. I flipped a coin but it came down on edge.

NED indicates it is two galaxies that are merging. This doesn't appear to be the case. Just that there are condensations of new stars at the north and south ends of the galaxy. But it does have two designations in some catalogs. Also, one note at NED says: "double system, contact; disrupted." Arp's comment: "Resolution into Stars" doesn't help settle this issue. Still, the most current analysis of the galaxy using the Hubble Space Telescope considers it one dwarf galaxy. The paper is at http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/567/1/258/pdf/54424.web.pdf .

Toward the bottom center, you will see lots of faint galaxies. These are in the ZwCl 1235.0+3852 galaxy cluster. No distance is given for Zwicky clusters. NED says it has 93 members in an 18 arc minute circle.

The field is devoid of nearby galaxies. Still, I prepared an annotated version as there are some quasars and a few of the very distant galaxies did have redshift data. Note there are no galaxies anywhere near as close as Arp 211 on the image. This though is misleading. At its close distance, related galaxies can be several degrees away. In fact, while the nearest is 43.5 minutes away there are some 100 or so close enough in actual distance that NED considers them possible members of the group. If we were looking from a more distant vantage point the area would look rather crowded with galaxies. We're just too close to see the forest for the trees as they say. Still, I don't see this one as a merger candidate.

Arp's excellent image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp211.jpeg

I've included the HST image in green light which I did a quickie process of from the Hubble Legacy Archive. The northeastern part of the galaxy was out of the frame, unfortunately.

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


ARP211L6X10RGB2X10X3-CROP150.JPG


ARP211L6X10RGB2X10X3-ID.JPG


ARP211L6X10RGB2X10X3.JPG


HST_ARP221.JPG

ARP212

Arp 212 (NGC 7625) is a small galaxy only about 60 light years away. It is classed as an SA(rs)A pec spiral and by Arp as an unclassifiable galaxy with "irregularities, absorption and resolution". Today most consider it a polar ring galaxy but the ring is not illuminated as it consists mostly of dust and nonionized hydrogen gas though some HII is seen. Those interested in what all this means can go to this link for more info. http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0808/0808.1696v1.pdf

This one was taken and is displayed at 0.5" per pixel rather than my normal 1" per pixel, putting more stress on image quality. In this case, I pick up detail that Arp using the Palomar 200" telescope didn't. So I had better seeing than Palomar this night.

To make a polar ring a galaxy it is usually considered necessary to have to have encountered another galaxy. Again, none is seen in the area. But it could have happened some time ago. A dwarf galaxy far out of my field of view to the upper left (northeast) is mentioned in the PDF link above as a possible candidate but this is still somewhat uncertain. NGC 7625 was discovered by William Herschel on October 15, 1784.

This image was taken at 0.5" per pixel rather than my normal 1" per pixel. At the time this was processed I was using a 32-bit system limited to about 3 gigabytes of free memory. This wasn't sufficient to work on the entire image so I cropped it down until I could fit it into memory. I need to redo it now that I am using a 64-bit system but as there wasn't much to see in the portion I cropped out I doubt that will happen any time soon.

Arp's image: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp212.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=7x10'x1 RGB=2x10x2, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME


ARP212NGC7625L7X10X1RGB2X10R1CROP-1200.JPG

ARP213

Arp 213/IC 356 is a heavily obscured galaxy seen through the dust of our own galaxy. It is found in the constellation of Camelopardalis not far from its far more famous neighbor IC 342. I do need to retake that one as I severely underexposed it. Arp 213 is a couple degrees further north and thus in my Polaris tree. I had to do some very fancy processing to return the stars to a round shape. It took nearly a week of work and pondering the situation to whip this one into submission. Probably the most difficult processing I've succeeded in turning into a usable image. Pine needles make for some very odd diffraction effects in the raw images. Blue frames were deepest in the needles so there are some real issues with the blue data on this one. Nothing I can do but cut down the tree which acts a snow fence keeping a lot of snow from the observatory roof.

Arp 213 is classed by Arp as; "Galaxies (not classifiable as S(piral) or E(lliptical: Irregularities, absorption and resolution. Often I don't know what he is referring to but in this case, it is obviously the odd dark band that forms a radial spoke. "Faint straight absorption lanes lead toward nucleus, become triple" (Arp). Near the core it splits into three parts, one goes to the east of the core, one to the center and another to the west side of the core. Is this a feature of the galaxy or a dust lane in our own galaxy? I couldn't find a definite answer to this. Redshift data puts it at about 40 million light years. The spiral galaxy below it and a bit left is UGC 2955 and it too is about 40 million light-years away. They likely are part of the same group but I see no sign of interaction between them. So if the dark radial lane is due to interaction with another galaxy, where is it?

IC 356 was discovered by Edward Barnard on August 23, 1889.

The interesting looking galaxy east (left) of UGC 2955 is 2MFCG3399 but there's no redshift data on it. It is classed as S0 rather than an edge on spiral. It appears warped to me. The only other galaxy with redshift data is the one east and a tad north of Arp 213. It is LEDA 166486 and is listed at about 220 million light years. It is classed as either elliptical or undetermined by the sources I found.

Arp's image with the 200" scope:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp213.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2X10'X3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME


ARP213IC356L4X10RGB2X10X3R1.JPG

ARP214

There are two Arp systems in this image, Arp 214 and Arp 322. They are unrelated. Arp 214 is also NGC 3718. It was discovered by William Herschel on April 12, 1789 though not in either of the Herschel 400 programs which I find rather strange. Arp put it in his category for galaxies with irregularities, absorption and resolution. I don't know what he means by resolution but it certainly is irregular and has a strange absorption dust lane. These features are caused by its long-ago interaction with NGC 3729 to the east. Arp's comment on it reads: "Barred spiral, sharp nucleus, narrow absorption lanes through center." He never mentions the huge plumes drawn out by its interaction with NGC 3729 which itself is rather disturbed but didn't make Arp's atlas. It was also discovered by William Herschel on April 12, 1789 but did make the original Herschel 400 observing program. My comment on it from April 16, 1985 on a fair but humid night with my 10" f/5 at 50x reads "Small galaxy, gradually brighter toward center though no defined nucleus was seen. Smaller and fainter than NGC 3718 in the same field which is easier and more interesting."

The galaxies are a bit over 50 million light-years distant and found in Ursa Major. Both galaxies are experiencing strong star formation as a result of their interaction.

Arp 322 is the other entry to Arp's Atlas in this image. It is 4 of the 5 galaxies seen below Arp 214. It is much more distant at a bit less than 400 million light-years. The 5 galaxies constitute the Hickson Compact Group #56. The eastern member is not considered part of Arp 322. Arp put it in his section for galaxy chains. Other than mentioning that the chain is near Arp 214 he made no other comment on this entry. Did he leave out the eastern galaxy because its halo didn't overlap any other or because it didn't fit his idea of a "chain"? Without any comment on this, your guess is as good as mine.

Arp's image of #214:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp214.jpeg

Arp's image of #322:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp322.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x12' RGB=4x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME


NGC3718L12X10RGB4X10R-ID.JPG


NGC3718L12X10RGB4X10R.JPG

ARP215

ARP 215, NGC 2782, is thought to be the result of two galaxies that have almost merged. The core is still elongated and appears double at some wavelengths. The debris of the merger hasn't yet merged with the resulting galaxy but likely will. It is classed as SAB(rs)a and is a starburst galaxy. Some consider it a Seyfert 1 galaxy. Others say this is an illusion due to the massive star formation going on in its merging nuclei. The galaxy is about 125 million light-years distant and is found in southwest Lynx, north of 38 Lynx. It was discovered by William Herschel on March 18, 1878 but isn't in either Herschel 400 observing programs.

It is peculiar enough to make Arp's catalog under his class: Galaxies (not classifiable as E or S); adjacent loops. Not having today's multiple wavelength data he didn't likely know it was a merger situation. He just knew there were no galaxies in the area that could have interacted with it so its distortion was without an obvious explanation.

While the edge on spiral (SBb) to the southeast, UGC 4872, may seem to be involved it is three times as far away at 380 million light-years.

As there's quite a bit of information on the background galaxies thanks to the SDSS, I've made an annotated version showing the distance in billions of light-years to the more distant galaxies and quasars. Note the one west of Arp 215 at 3.9 billion light-years is the upper object. There's a star about 3" south. The galaxy is at magnitude 21.0 in visual (SDSS G filter) light. Limiting magnitude on the posted image is about 22.5. My data goes a bit below 23 on the Lum FITS. The image is not as deep as I'd have liked. Transparency wasn't very good these nights though seeing was fairly good.

Sometimes the SDSS data base in NED mystifies me. Below and a bit right of Arp 215 are two galaxies, one at 1.3 and the other 1.9 billion light-years. The galaxy in the middle isn't in the database. But if you look closely just to the left of it near its northern end is a very dim star, below 22nd magnitude. The SDSS puts at the location of the galaxy, noting it is a star and lists its magnitude as 20.4 which is way too bright for the star but dimmer than the anonymous galaxy. It is noted with a question mark in the annotated image. I included it to point out the more distant objects in the image.

There's one quasar identified in the image as well. Most of the galaxies with red shift data are between 1.2 and 1.4 billion light-years.

SDSS image:
http://astronomerica.awardspace.com/SDSS-18/NGC2782.php

There are a few HST frames in the archive but they need so much work to salvage and don't appear to add much to this discussion I didn't try to salvage them.

Arp's image is one of his best. Core does appear possibly double rather than just a short bar.
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp215.jpeg

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


ARP215L4X10RGB2X10X3R-ID.JPG


ARP215L4X10RGB2X10X3R.JPG