ARP216

ARP 216 is a pair of galaxies in the Circlet of Pisces about 215 million light years beyond the Circlet and us. I find a lot on this pair but lots of confusion as well. I'll start with the basics first then get to the confusion. The distorted galaxy is NGC 7679 an SB0 pec galaxy some class as a Seyfert 2 and others a Seyfert 1 galaxy (OK a bit of confusion sneaks in). The other galaxy is mostly normal looking NGC 7682 classed as SB(r)ab and all agree is a Seyfert 2 galaxy. Arp classed the pair under Galaxies (not classifiable as S or E): Adjacent loops. I assume that refers to the "bright" loop to the north that may connect to the fainter one coming up from the west end. I'd need a lot more exposure time to see if the loop is complete.

At the east end of NGC 7679 is a bright clump seen against the distorted tidal arm near its edge. This is classed as a separate galaxy SRGb 037.046 and shows the same redshift. I'd dismiss it as just a bright clump that's part of NGC 7679 except a couple notes refer to it as a separate galaxy. Most say NGC 7679 and 7682 are an interacting pair. But I see little distortion in NGC 7682. It appears about the same size as NGC 7679 so I'd expect it to be as distorted but that's not the case. It does have an odd dark lane at the south end of the brighter oval that separates that from a faint outer arc. Other than that I see nothing unusual enough to indicate a major interaction with NGC 7679. Now return to that puff on the east end of NGC 7679. One paper says of it: "Dwarf satellite connected to the primary by a short thin filament, mostly normal to the surface of the latter. Primary appears to be spheroidal, not spiral." I don't see the filament referred to. But this paper and a couple others seem to indicate this little guy is the culprit and what we have here is the remains of a galaxy "eaten" by NGC 7679 rather than interaction with NGC 7682. Though most papers only cite NGC 7682 as the interacting galaxy. For now, I'm going with the minority view that this is a merger situation. Star sprays are often the result of such mergers. It could be that this low density "fluff" has been pulled into the "loop" Arp sees by NGC 7682 but that the vast majority of the distortion of NGC 7679 is due to the merger which is also converting it to a spherical or elliptical galaxy from a spiral before the merger. All speculation on my part.

I accidentally imaged this one twice but with the faintness of the plumes this turned out to be a good thing as by combining them both the faint eastern component of the loop came up enough from the noise it could be seen. Since I took it twice only by accident, first image run didn't get logged, I didn't take pains to be sure the centering was at all similar. This results in the image being somewhat cropped from my usual size. Fortunately, there was little to be seen in the cropped portions. In fact, the background is rather sparse even with twice my normal exposure. Few stars or galaxies are to be seen. It's not in Sloan's survey field so few of the background galaxies in the image are identifiable.

While there appears to be a very faint filament running between NGC 7679 and 7682 there's an even brighter plume to the west-northwest. I didn't find any mention of it. NGC 7679 and 7682 were discovered by Heinrich d'Arrest on September 23, 1864.

The other major galaxy in the image to the southeast of Arp 216 is UGC 12628. It is about 200 million light-years distant by redshift. Close enough to Arp 216 that they may be part of the same group. It is classed as SB(rs)c. Its many spiral arms seem rather chaotic some being short arcs, another rather straight and crossed by a highly curved arm.

The only other galaxy in the image with redshift data is SRGb 037.051. It is due east of NGC 7679, two-thirds of the way to the eastern edge of the image. It is nearly 700 million light years distant. Since I first wrote this quite a few galaxies without redshift have been posted to NED. I've identified a few of these. Note the blue smudge above NGC 7679 is listed as an X-ray source rather than a galaxy but that's likely due to it being recorded by an X-ray satellite.

There are two very blue galaxies that appear nearly starlike in my image to the west-southwest of NGC 7679. I've identified these but found little on them. They look quite interesting in Arp's image. Also, there's a distant galaxy seen right through the eastern stretched arm that is somewhat red in color, possibly due to dust in that arm. It too is anonymous as far as I can determine.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp216.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=8x10' RGB=4x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP216

ARP217

Arp 217/NGC 3310 is an example of a galactic merger. There are two cores separated by 2" of arc. Imaging at 1" per pixel I was unable to resolve this. A tremendous spray of stars loops and radiates from this galaxy. My 50 minutes of exposure time plus a nasty glare from a fifth magnitude star just off the top of the frame made pulling it out difficult. This galaxy is located in Ursa Major southwest of the southwest corner of the bowl of the big dipper. It is about 50 million light-years distant by redshift measurement. Other sources put it slightly further away but the differences are minor so I'll go with this nice round number.

It is a starburst galaxy, possibly on par with M82. Oddly few O stars are seen which is hard to explain. I was surprised by how much H alpha I picked up in the arms. These huge regions indicate star formation is going on not just in the core but along the arms as well. If O stars are in short supply how are these regions being ionized?

It is known as the Bow and Arrow Galaxy for the odd stream of young blue stars piercing a diffuse arc of stars that possibly traces the path of the merging galaxy. I've also seen it called the Bowstring Galaxy though that ignores the arrow so I prefer the former. It was discovered by William Herschel on April 12, 1789, but didn't make either Herschel 400 observing program.

I had to place the galaxy high to move a K3 giant star out of the field. It still sent a halo of light through the upper half of the galaxy that made processing this image very difficult. I lost some of the star streams because of it.

I found some odd things while preparing the annotated image. First, a star-like object east of Arp 217 is identified as a star cluster associated with Arp 217! It is labeled *Cl. Its redshift is the same as that of Arp 217. That's one heck of a star cluster if that is right.

Down to the southwest of Arp 217 is an object with three entries; the primary as a star, next as an X-ray source and lastly as a galaxy. But it is listed as being 10.9 billion light years distant and is classed as an AGN (Active Galactic Nuclei). That plus the X-rays would make it a possible quasar. I added a ? to its label for this reason.

In the lower right corner is the galaxy cluster GMBCG J159.31485+53.30322 anchored by the Bright Cluster Galaxy GMBCG J159.31485+53.30322 BCG. Measured redshift for the galaxy gives a distance of 4.3 billion light-years. A photographic measurement of redshift (less accurate) gives a distance to the cluster of 4.1. I just listed the 4.3 figure on the annotated image.

As is all too often the case I checked a galaxy that NED missed. It found some 3000 within 20 minutes of Arp 217, half fainter than any shown on my image. Yet, it missed a rather red galaxy in the lower left corner marked with a question mark. Usually these are low surface brightness blue galaxies but in this case, it is a pretty ordinary looking reddish elliptical-like galaxy.

This is a reshoot. The first time I tried imaging it the K3 star was in the field and made such a glare across the entire image it was easier to reshoot it than try to reprocess it. Still, that star nailed me. I doubt I'll try again. This will have to do. Even if the night's seeing was rather poor.

Arp's image: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp217.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=5x10' RGB=2x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP217

ARP218

Arp 218 is located in eastern Serpens Caput not far from the famous Hercules Galaxy Cluster. It may be a member of the Hercules supercluster as one paper I did find considers it as such but provides little else. That may help account for the rather rich field of distant galaxies in the image. Unfortunately, while it is the last of the Arps I imaged it is also the least researched of those I have taken which is the vast majority of them. For instance, there are only 6 papers listed in SIMBAD, all of which are just listings mentioning it or Arp's catalog entry. A couple papers consider it an M51 type of interacting pair but only list it as such an example. There's not even any distance estimate for it that I could find. Virtually all I could find on them is shown on the annotated image. They may be members of the same group those at 650 million light-years in the image. That's only a guess on my part.

The eastern member has an apparently tidally distorted arm that curves back on itself making the appearance of a loop though I doubt that is really the case if seen from a different angle it likely goes far behind or in front of the galaxy rather than looping back into the galaxy's core. Arp put it in his class for galaxies with "Adjacent Loops", whatever that means. He left no note on this pair so your guess is as good as mine. Part way up the loop is a bright blue star-forming region that appears almost star-like in my image. It's clearly a star knot in the Sloan image I've attached. Or so I thought. NED, however, lists it as a separate galaxy both with a Sloan ID and one from the new ASK catalog. Though it gives no size, magnitude or classification it does give a redshift! That puts it about 670 million light-years distant. That is 100 to 200 million light-years more distant than the various clusters making up the nearby Hercules Supercluster. For now, I'm saying it is part of Arp 218 and not a separate galaxy.

The western member is unclassified. It has a very bright star cluster at its northeastern end. It has a rather red core and the southwest side is very blue indicating a spiral type galaxy with the NE end highly disturbed creating a super bright star cluster. I mistook it for a star on my image but the Sloan image under far higher resolution shows it to be part of the galaxy.

The annotated image details all the galaxies for which NED had distance data. There were many I'd like to know more about but it just isn't available. South of Arp 218 is a pair of very small blue galaxies. The northern one appears to be a disk galaxy that is highly warped. Below and to the west is another very blue galaxy, an obvious spiral. It too appears distorted. Are they an interacting pair? It's unusual to see an edge on spiral that's as blue as this northeastern one is. Both are bluer than expected which could be due to "recent" star formation due to interaction.

There's a galaxy northeast of CGCG 107-053 that appears to have a very off-center core. But it is at a very different distance than all its apparent neighbors. How did it get so distorted?

UGC 10084, CGCG 107-053 and a couple others appear to be part of the same group as Arp 218. CGCG 107-053 is a neat, tightly wound spiral while the much closer UGC 10085 is a very interesting multi-arm with very irregular widely spread arms. I wish it was closer so we could get a better look at it. it is quite a contrast compared to the CGCG spiral.

Arp took his image of Arp 218 under very poor seeing conditions, even worse than mine allowing me to capture more detail than he could. Nice to out-shoot what was "The World's Largest Telescope" for most of my life. The idea it could happen was less believable to me than I'd have a computer more powerful than those taking up entire floors of climate controlled buildings in the 50's.

Arp's image http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp218.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP218

ARP219

If only we were 400 million light years closer this one would be a grand object.

NED considers Arp 219 a galaxy pair known as UGC 02812. The main distorted galaxy and the small reddish galaxy within the large tidal arc. It is classed as SB pec. Its redshift puts it at about 460 million light-years. Its tiny reddish companion has no redshift data. The "companion" also shows no sign of distortion. So which, if either, of the nearby galaxies; the "companion" PGC 200217, UGC 02814 or CGCG 391-022, latter two discussed below, caused the tidal disruption is a mystery to me.

I was totally unaware of the huge tidal loop that appeared. It didn't show in the raw images until they were calibrated, and then only in the luminosity data. I needed far more color data to show it clearly. Thus its color is very uncertain in my image. Another for next year. Of the main galaxy, MCG +00-10-009, one note at NED says; "3-4 components in contact. The far components elongated. Remarkably large arc." I should have read the note before imaging it! Arp, on the other hand, says "Faint arc and filament on N side." Apparently, he saw the start of the huge arc.

Since there is no candidate for the collision one possible answer is that this is a merger of two galaxies so the galaxy contains its "attacker". This would explain the multiple parts mentioned but not resolved in my below average seeing image. The arc of stars will likely fall back and rejoin the galaxy in a few hundred million years. The galaxy will likely be an elliptical by then. Now if we could just come back in a few hundred million years and see if I'm right.

Arp 219 is classed by Arp as: "Galaxies (not classifiable as S or E); adjacent loops." Though the main loop shows in his photo the very large faint loop I didn't realize was there is only hinted at in his photo and, in fact, goes out of the frame so it appears he wasn't aware of it either. But he didn't have the internet to help him out as I did.

The spiral NE of Arp 219 is UGC 02814, a magnitude 15 galaxy about 410 million light-years away. UGC catalog considers it paired with UGC 02812 which is Arp 219. Arp didn't include it in his photo.

There's yet another galaxy at about the same redshift as Arp 219 in the image. That is CGCG 391-022 at 470 million light-years. It is the largest reddish elliptical galaxy toward the upper right, NW, corner.

Arp's image is at: http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp219.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=5x10' RGB=2x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP219

ARP220

Arp 220/IC 4553 is the closest known Ultra Luminous Infra Red Galaxy (ULIRG) known and one of the brightest. Though all this was unknown at the time of Arp's atlas. This was discovered initially by the IRAS satellite. A press conference to announce these objects that the scientists didn't realize were galaxies at the time has been used by, first the believers of the 2003 Zeta/planet X end of the world and then by the 12/21/2012 end of the world believers of "planet Nibiru" to "prove" this mythical planet exists. If it wasn't this galaxy that caused the furor it was one like it. I was a supervisor of a public observatory back when the Zeta fiasco happened and was reviled by some for not showing them this non-existent planet. I don't miss those days.

Arp puts this one in his class "galaxies with adjacent loops". While this one is one of the most studied of all Arp galaxies he had no comment on it. It is located in Serpens Caput about 250 million light-years away. NED classes it as S?. It has LINER and Seyfert 2 characteristics.

At one time it was thought that visually we were seeing two galaxies not quite yet in contact. Then it was realized the "gap" was a dust lane and we see only one galaxy. Radio telescopes and then IR telescopes showed it had two cores hidden behind the dust that are only 0.9" of arc apart. It really is two after all. Since it shows somewhat contrary signs of being an AGN and being a starburst galaxy some think this is due to one galaxy harboring a very active AGN and the other having strong starburst activity. One paper suggests that the two massive black holes will merge in a billion years or less. Appears I'll miss that event if it happens. Another galaxy at the same distance as Arp 220 is on the eastern edge of my image.

The annotated image shows a large number of galaxies all with the same redshift that puts them at 1.2 billion light-years. I found no reference to a cluster, however. One galaxy is at 1.3 billion light-years. Due to rounding to 2 significant figures there is nearly a 120 million light-year difference in their distances so it isn't likely related.

I had great difficulty imaging this one. I started in April of 2010 and tried many nights through until the last subs were taken on June 18. Out of all that I got only 2 good luminance frames and two badly hurt by clouds which bloated the brightest stars, especially the one to the northwest of Arp 220. But the high clouds settled seeing so those were the sharpest. In order to get enough signal for a decent image I used the 11 RGB images (one blue was lost to clouds) and stacked them with the 4 luminance frames I used to make a pseudo luminance image. This worked better than I expected, resulting in a far better image than I expected to be able to put together. Just ignore the bloated brighter stars the clouds gave me. Also due to most images being heavily filtered by clouds and RGB filters this one doesn't go as deep as normal. It barely reaches magnitude 21 instead of the 22.5 I commonly reach. I've been trying again this year but so far the clouds have said no way. I decided to try processing what I had and am happy with the results so likely won't put it on the reshoot list.

It was discovered on July 25, 1903 by Stephane Javelle.

Since this one is so highly studied I have other images to refer.

A radio image showing the two cores can be found in figure 12 and 13 of this paper
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1996ApJ...465..191M&data_type=PDF_HIGH&whole_paper=YES&type=PRINTER&filetype=.pdf

Kitt Peak image with the 2.1-meter telescope in near IR and H alpha (my image suddenly doesn't appear so bad)
http://www.astr.ua.edu/gifimages/arp220.html

Chandra X-ray image of the cores
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/1181/

HST NICMOS image in near IR showing the two cores
http://hubblesite.org/image/484/news_release/1997-17

HST visible light image (suddenly my image is really putrid)
http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/large/heic0810bf.jpg

Arp's image
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp220.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=15x10' RG=4x10' B=3x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP220

ARP221

ARP 221 is a triple galaxy in Hydra about 3.5 degrees southeast of Alphard, Hydra's lone 2nd magnitude star. Arp classified it as a galaxy with amorphous spiral arms making the comment: "Faint diffuse material to south, bright filament to hard image on NW side of nucleus." Sounds awkward but is the way he wrote it. Apparently, he was ignoring the two close companions though NED and others consider all three part of Arp 221. All three have the same redshift putting them 260 million light-years from us. It appears rather obvious the main galaxy has been highly disturbed causing the tidal plumes Arp called amorphous arms. NED classifies it as I0 Pec. It may have been a spiral. Is it interacting with one or both of its close companions or is it the result of a merger. I found nothing on it to help decide this question. The south end of the halo has a sharp, well-defined edge looking like a shell. These are usually a sign of a merger so I'm leaning in that direction. Also one or both of the "arms" (especially the on the NW side) may be the remains of its dinner showing the path it followed while being ripped apart. Another reason I favor the merger option.

Several other galaxies much further distant from ARP 221 show virtually the same redshift distance indicating this is a group of galaxies but I found no cluster or galaxy group cataloged for this position. Unfortunately, this part of the sky is poorly studied. What few galaxies had redshift data are shown in the annotated image. The largest dimension of its halo measures some 2 minutes across in my data. That makes the galaxy, including plumes, about 150,000 light-years across.

I had thought I'd taken all Arp galaxies north of 15 degrees south, my normal limit unless the night is extraordinarily good. But over a year ago a sweep of the hard drive showed me I had missed two. Well, I'd tried them several times but seeing and clouds were too much. Apparently, I thought I had good enough data and removed them from my to-do list. Then when I found they weren't worth processing never put them back on the list. I fixed that last year but weather and bad seeing continued resulting in more failures. This year I've been trying again with similar results. Finally one night I just had time to catch this one under good seeing for its -11 degree declination. But it entered my Meridian Tree ruining the second green frame. The first had a horribly bright satellite across the top of the frame. Cloning and the Hasta La Vista Green filter made for a successful repair.

I've included in the annotated image a few that had no redshift data. Those that only had coordinates for their "name" were found in either the 2MASS IR survey or the Galex Ultraviolet survey so carry the designation of IrS or UvS. One was in both so has both marking it. Many weren't in NED at all. One that appears part of a pair of contrasting colors fell into that hole and is noted by a question mark even though it was much brighter than many that were in NED. Without redshift nor names other than their position I didn't annotate the vast majority in the image.

The minor planet center showed an asteroid in the frame I should have picked up but didn't. That puzzled me until a few weeks later when I checked again and now it was listed as lost. So the coordinates I had were wrong.

Arp's image of this one with the 200" Palomar scope can be found at:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp221.jpeg
For once he put north at the top same as I have it.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RB=2x10' G=1x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP221

ARP222

Arp 222 is NGC 7727, a very disturbed spiral classed as SAB(s)a pec by NED, S(B)a pec by the NGC project and a mess by me. Arp included it under galaxies with amorphous spiral arms. It is very similar to Arp 223 as well as near it in western Aquarius. But is only about half as far away at 70 million light years. Like Arp 223 it has a nearby companion at about the same distance, NGC 7724 to its west. It is classed as (R')SB(r)b pec? by NED and Sb by the NGC project. The arms do make a near ring but nowhere as nice as that of Arp 223's companion. I'm stumped as to why NED considers it possible peculiar other than the near ring like arm structure. Since that is fairly common I don't see that as peculiar. NED shows it to be 73 million light years distant but that's well within the error bar of redshift distance measurement so which is really closer to us is pretty much a coin toss.

Notes at NED indicate it is likely the result of a merger as two nuclei are seen. Looking at my image at 3x I see a red object due east of the main core and a white object to the north-northwest. The later may be a star as it appears a bit sharper. One note says it is 3" from the main one but doesn't give a direction. That would be the north-northeast object. The note says it could be just a star as their resolution of 0.7" (better than mine at 1") wasn't sufficient to tell. If they can't I certainly can't. Still, it does have the appearance of a merger so I'll go with that for now. The galaxy seems to have a nearly vertical axis and a nearly horizontal one. That and its style of distortion matches known mergers such as Arp 192 leads me to this conclusion. Arp is of no help having made no comment on either 222 or 223.

Since this area is so little studied I never thought to check out Hubble until I was just about to post this. When I did I found an image of the core that clearly shows this is a merger in progress and that northern object is the second core, a much smaller one than the main one, likely because it has been stripped of most of its stars by the merger. So the merger idea appears correct. I've included this Hubble image. It also shows my red patch is just a loop of stars torn out by the merger process. I've also included a highly processed version of my image that may show the second core. Or it is just enhanced noise.

While NGC 7724 is nearby it shows no distortion so I doubt it is interacting with Arp 222. This is also the conclusion of the NGC project and several notes at NED. Still, it is an interesting galaxy in an otherwise rather drab image. The colors of both are rather weak with both being rather white in color, not a lot of star formation going on in either it would seem.

NGC 7727 was discovered by William Herschel on November 27, 1785. It is in the original Herschel 400 observing program. My comments with my 10" f/5 on September 6, 1985 at 60x bothered by some aurora reads: "Small, tight, elongated patch of galactic light. Rapidly brighter toward the center."

There's little information on what few galaxies there are in the image. The only other galaxy of note is the small two armed (very faint arms) barred spiral in the lower left corner, 2MASX J23405811-1223374 at about 900 million light years.

There are two asteroids in the image. The one at the top directly above Arp 222 is (152825) 1999 UE49 at magnitude 19.1. It is moving virtually directly west. In the lower part of the image well east (left) of center is (106135) 2000 TE42 at magnitude 18.7. It is moving at a steeply inclined angle to the southwest.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp222.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP222

ARP223

Arp 223 is entered in his catalog under amorphous spiral arms. It is also known as NGC 7585 and is in the constellation of Aquarius just below the Circlet of Pisces. Redshift puts it at about 145 million light-years away. Most sources say it is the result of a merger of two galaxies but do admit they find no hint of the second galaxy saying it must have been some time ago and it is now fully absorbed. They note the presence of NGC 7576 10.7 minutes to the southwest (also in my image) but dismiss it has being too far away. But again admitting that it too is about 145 million light-years distant with virtually the same redshift as Arp 223. It is a ring galaxy which often is the result of an encounter. Neither shows any tidal streamer that you'd expect from an encounter so probably the experts are right, still, I have to wonder a bit. But see its near-twin Arp 222.

I screwed up taking this one. I've had NGC 7592, a triple interacting Arp "wanna-be" galaxy on my to-do list for several years. It is just 15 minutes north of Arp 223. Somehow in my muddled middle of the night brain (cloud alarm woke me at 1 a.m. to say the sky has cleared get imaging), I thought I needed to put it high in the field to pick up NGC 7592 but it should have been low! ARGH. I could have captured all three if my brain had been working on even half its neurons. As of this writing, I'm yet to capture NGC 7592.

Edit: Since then NGC 7592 has been imaged and includes Arp 223.

NGC 7585 was discovered by William Herschel on September 20, 1784 but isn't in either of the Herschel 400 observing programs. Neither is NGC 7576 which he found on October 5, 1785.

I did catch 4 asteroids in the image. In the upper left corner partly out of frame is (8943) Stefanozavka at magnitude 18.4, slightly to its west is 2005 SK58 at magnitude 19.3. Down near the lower left corner is 2000 AY204 at magnitude 17.6. Toward the lower right corner, under NGC 7576 is (14021) 1994 PL20 at magnitude 18.3. Magnitudes are estimates by the minor planet center and can be off quite a bit it seems. You may wonder why the second asteroid has no number. Asteroids get a number only after their orbit is fully determined. This usually takes at least one full orbit. That hasn't yet happened for 2005 SK58. There is a bright streak through a star near the top of the frame, left of center. The streak was caused by a tiny speck of dirt on a filter that happened to exactly hit the star's position.

Several catalogs list an 18.7 magnitude quasar just southwest of Arp 223 a bit over about 1.4 minutes away and just on the edge of the galaxy as seen in my image. Since I easily picked up a 19th magnitude moving asteroid an 18.7 magnitude quasar should be very obvious. I don't see it, nor do I see it in Arp's image of the galaxy. Either it is much fainter than listed or the position is wrong. It's [VCV2001] J231758.8-043954 and yes the coordinates in its name match the position where I don't see it, just about 10" NE of a tight unequal double star. But the position has an error bar of 100 seconds of arc so it could be anything within 100" of that position. While I checked every star none measured 18.7. Closest is one of 19.3 directly south of the galaxy core. Why it's position is so uncertain I don't know.

This field is too close to the Milky Way's dust (Zone of Avoidance) so not covered by the SDSS. This means there's little information on this entire field. Only one other object has a redshift given (besides the lost quasar). It is a small galaxy nearly 10 minutes west and slightly north of Arp 223. It is just beside a dim star to its upper right. It is listed at 2.1 billion light years. So while there is a paucity of galaxies compared to my normal posts that isn't Because I'm not going as deep, they just aren't there.

Arp's image is at:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp223.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=1x20'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP223

ARP224

ARP 224, NGC 3921, is considered to be a merger in progress. Simulations indicate it is about 0.5 to 0.8 billion years since the merger began. It is part of a cluster of galaxies about 275 million light-years distant and is in the bowl of the Big Dipper not far from Phecda (Gamma Ursae Majoris). Arp included it under Galaxies (not classifiable as S or E): amorphous spiral arms. Though a note in NED incorrectly says it is under the preceding category, adjacent loops. Arp's comment: "Straight filament leads to bright offset nucleus." Yet his image shows it to be slightly curved. The CGCG catalog notes: "Blue disk-like post-eruptive compact with large external loop and extended jets." I would imagine given another billion years or so those stars will settle back into the galaxy creating a large elliptical galaxy. For now, it appears one galaxy left the huge looping tail while the other left the shorter and weaker slightly curved tail. I see only one well-defined core. Since the smaller tail appears to connect to it I'll go out on a limb and say it is the source of that tail. Could it be, it being more massive, pretty well tore up the other less massive one creating the huge looping plume ending in what appears to be a bunch of small "cores" arcing north of the main core? Is that all that's left of its core or is that hidden behind the other one? I'm only guessing here.

Directly west of Arp 224 is SDSS J115059.24+550413.5 looking like a dwarf spiral and below it is SDSS J115059.33+550310.0 an even smaller dwarf elliptical. Both are at about the same distance as Arp 224. Also, a member of the group is NGC 3916, the SAb spiral to the northwest of Arp 224 as is the smaller spiral to the SW that appears to harbor a "Saturn" like core in my shot. It is MCG +09-19-213.

The galaxy cluster ZwCl 1148.6+5523 is just about centered on Arp 224. It is said to have about 121 members and is about 50' across, far larger than my image.

The galaxies in this image seem to fall into several distance categories. The Arp 224 group being the closest. Then there's a group at about 775 through 820 million light years. A typical member is the round galaxy southwest of MCG +09-19-213.

Another group is at 1 billion light years and seems to be likely the group referred to in the Zwicky cluster. It is centered on the giant red elliptical galaxy a short distance northeast of Arp 224. The Zwicky cluster's center is about half way between it and Arp 224. Most of the obviously orange galaxies around this area appear part of this group.

Then there's a scattering of even more distant galaxies, such as SDSS J115036.68+550915.0, the star-like very orange galaxy west-northwest of NGC 3916. It appears brighter than its rated 18.8 magnitude and far more distant than you expect at 2.7 billion light-years.

The annotated image shows the distance to non-Arp 224 group galaxies when known. All galaxies showing detail but without a distance shown are members of the Arp 224 group at about 275 million light-years.

Arp's image:
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp224.jpeg
SDSS image:
http://astronomerica.awardspace.com/SDSS-29/NGC3921.php
Hubble Space Telescope -- core
http://hubblesite.org/image/533/news_release/1997-34
Hubble Space Telescope -- southern half of Arp 224
http://hubblesite.org/image/526/news_release/1997-34

Sorry, I couldn't find any larger versions of the Hubble images, the data in the archive wasn't complete enough from what I saw to make a larger version.

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

Related Designations for ARP224

ARP225

Arp 225/NGC 2655 is a nearby strange galaxy in Camelopardalis. Redshift puts it about 65 million light-years away though a Tully estimate says more like 80. I'm going to go with the closer figure as even that distance makes it a huge galaxy some 170,000 light-years across. The more distant estimate makes it about 210,000 light-years across. I doubt it is that big. The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on September 26, 1802. It is in the original Herschel 400 observing program. My notes made on the night of April 14, 1985 at 100x under fair conditions using my 10" f/5 reads: "Small, faint, circular puff of a galaxy with a small but not starlike nucleus."

It is obviously a highly disturbed galaxy. Arp put it in his class for galaxies with amorphous spiral arms. He said of it: "Very faint diffuse outer arms, absorption one side of nucleus." NED classes it as SAB(s)0/a while the NGC Project says S0/Sa. Several papers call it a Seyfert 2 galaxy. I found only one paper addressing the "amorphous" arms. It refers to LEDA 3085822 which is the large rather evenly faint blob to the northwest (about 2 O'clock) near the upper right corner of the enlarged, cropped image. The paper refers to it as An 0849+78. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?1996A%26AS..117..343K It says: "An 0849+78 is located at the extension of an outer spiral arm of NGC 2655 and seems to be connected to it by a very faint bridge. Its isophotes are of regular shape; a faint elongated nucleus is marginally visible. The light profile is probably non-exponential, but its outer part is poorly determined due to the uncertainties in background subtraction. The HI observations show that An 0849+78 is confused by NGC 2655, at V_h_ = 1400 km/s. To calculate the absolute characteristics we use for An 0849+78 the distance of NGC 2655. If An 0849+78 is a bound (dwarf spheroidal) companion of NCC (sic) 2655, its survival in the gravitational field of the bright galaxy is problematic. New multicolour photometry and HI observations are needed."

So it appears the "arms" could be really the tidal tail of a dwarf galaxy being pulled apart by NGC 2655 as it orbits the much larger galaxy. NED gives the "blob" almost the same redshift as Arp 225 which supports this idea. The dust near the core likely is from this now almost annihilated galaxy. While I found no paper willing to go this far it seems the most reasonable explanation of what is going on here. Besides the above paper, another would go this far: "NGC 2655 = Arp 225 is an Sa galaxy which shows traces of a strong interaction or merger event: faint outer stellar loops, extended HI-envelope (Huchtmeier & Richter 1982). The bulge in NGC 2655 is especially large (Table 4). The central dust-structure (Erwin et al. 1996) is probably the reason for the disturbed fit residuum there."
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?2001A%26A...368...16M

Yet another paper coming close to saying these loops are due to galaxies being destroyed is:
http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-3881/135/1/99 but put on your hip waders if you haven't already.

There is an odd, likely background galaxy seen right through the outer parts of Arp 225 almost directly north of the core. It might be two galaxies superimposed or even a star and galaxy. This is almost certainly a background object(s). In any case, the two look somewhat like a comet. The only thing NED shows at almost that position (about 1" different from its centroid) is the infrared source 2MASXi J0855445+781451. It doesn't indicate this is a galaxy but it just might be this object. In fact, NED has very little on this field which is common for these galaxies up near the celestial pole. It has a redshift for only one other galaxy, UGC 04701, the nice Sd: near edge on spiral east of Arp 225. It has about the same redshift as the other two so they are likely part of a group. Two-thirds of a degree east of Arp 225 and well out of my image is a very nice spiral NGC 2715 also with a similar redshift. It is a nice spiral showing little sign of being disturbed. It went on my to-do list once I could reach this far north but weather last year prevented any of its photons being captured. (It has been taken since this was written).

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp225.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP225