ARP287

ARP 287 is a pair of interacting galaxies, also known as NGC 2735 and NGC 2735A, located in northern Cancer. Arp put these in his category: Double galaxies, Wind effects. In fact, it is the very first entry in this category. Arp said of the pair: "Slanted parallel streamers off each edge of main galaxy." That certainly is the case. They certainly are strange compared to the standard plumes seen in interacting galaxies. Many years ago I spent many days playing with software to model interacting galaxies. I found it easy to make all varieties of "normal plumes" seen in his catalog but I never could make the "wind effect" type no matter what I did. Such software was primitive (as was the computer) compared to today's, still, I've not seen a simulation that creates these types of plumes. If anyone has run across one please let me know. Besides the streamers note that there is a dust lane between them that extends completely across the main galaxy to the companion. So are the streamers really coming from the companion as the dust lane appears to be? Seems possible to me.

Redshift data at NED puts the main galaxy at about 125 million light years and classes it as SAB(rs)b? pec. Many papers, however, class it as a "Red SBa" spiral. The companion is a blue compact galaxy classed as Im: pec and showing a redshift that puts it a bit further away at 130 million light years. This difference is easily within the normal range of galaxies in groups. They are likely at virtually the same distance. The thin sliver of a galaxy to their east (left) is also at the same distance (SDSS J090253.00+255612.5). So this is more of a triple than a double system. It just isn't interacting with the other two. NGC 2735 was discovered by Édouard Stephan on February 26, 1878.

Arp later noted that quasars seemed to be found around his strangest galaxies and thought that the low redshift ones were nearest the galaxy and the largest redshifts belonged to the most distant. Most astronomers considered this coincidence but it led Arp the belief that some, if not all, quasars were actually nearby objects ejected from these strange galaxies. He even came up with what many would call crackpot physics to support this idea. This and other factors led to him being kicked off the 200" scope and sent packing for Europe where a few still thought at least some parts of his ideas needed to be further investigated. Few if any buy them today, however. Geoffrey Burbidge, who died before Arp, was one of the few that still held out hope for non-cosmological redshift but not using Arp's "warped" physics. `In the case of Arp 287, there is a "nearby" quasar just north of the main galaxy that is "only" 4.9 billion light years distant. See the annotated image to find it. A bit further out along the same line is one 8.2 billion light years out and following the line the other way even further is one of 11.6 billion light years. But if you go further the idea breaks down with a quasar to the northeast of the last one that is only 4.4 billion light years away, the lowest redshift of all. But if you want to save the nutty idea then maybe these are something different. It was partly due to Arp's ability to rationalize away exceptions that helped ruin his reputation. All scientists constantly come up with wrong ideas. The good ones know when to let go and move on. For some reason, Arp found this impossible as to his anomalous redshift idea.

The annotated image. as usual, shows the distances to galaxies and quasars in billions of light years. The limiting magnitude of the image appears to be about magnitude 23.5 for the processed image. The raw luminosity images goes a bit deeper. I've labeled one such galaxy with its green magnitude. It is one of dozens you will see if you enlarge the lower southeast portion of the image. To me it appears there's a galaxy cluster there but I found none listed at NED for this area. Looking at the image though you will see the galaxies tend to fall into groups. There's one at about 1.1 to 1.3 billion light-years, another at about 4.3 to 4.7 billion light years. If there's no redshift listed by an object that means I didn't find one at NED. This includes some rather "bright" galaxies.

The image contains 6 asteroids. Late evening images to those a few hours after local midnight show those that are moving in retrograde motion if near the meridian where I image. Thus they move "backwards" from east to west as we pass them taking our shorter and faster inner track around the sun. But this image was taken just before dawn and caught them in their "normal" west to east motion. So they are moving right to left. But the tracks are short indicating they soon will be changing to retrograde motion. The short tracks make them harder to pick out so I've labeled them in the annotated image. 3 are magnitude 19.7. The obvious bright one above Arp 287 is magnitude 18.6. The faintest at magnitude 20.1 is just above a "small" galaxy in the lower right corner. The one right on the bottom edge near the right edge as well is 19.9, I barely caught it. One of the 19.7 ones is named Desai. Seems if you do well in the Intel (used to be Westinghouse) science contest you get an asteroid named after you. This is the second I've run across in my images. The naming citation reads: "Kshitij A. Desai (b. 1992) was awarded second place in the 2008 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for his medicine and health sciences project. He attends the Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions, Houston, Texas, U.S.A." Do they have high schools for astronomy professionals?

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp287.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP287

ARP288

ARP 288 is a triple galaxy system in the very northeast corner of Virgo about 320 million light-years away. Arp put it in his catalog under Wind Effects. Apparently referring to the northern member of the trio, NGC 5221. It has some faint but huge plumes. South of it is the odd galaxy pair of NGC 5222. It consists of a small blue spiral and a larger golden elliptical galaxy. Arp's comment refers to NGC 5221 when it says: "Streamers in both directions from edge of spiral". Why he included the pair that is NGC 5222 I'm not sure. They are related in that their redshift is about the same but neither shows distortion that could easily explain NGC 5221's plumes.

NED classes NGC 5221 as Sb. I'd have thought the plumes would earn it a pec designation but apparently not. The spiral itself is quite ordinary looking though I suspect that is due to our highly tilted viewing angle. One note at NED says it is a barred spiral.

NGC 5222 is an odd pair of galaxies, a small blue Sa spiral and a far larger elliptical (E). The spiral has some distortion, best seen on the Sloan or Arp images. Redshift puts them about 3 million light years further away though this is likely due to their motion about a common center of gravity rather than a real difference. Still, these two have virtually the same redshift indicating a closer relationship. The papers I found consider the elliptical as the cause of NGC 5221's plumes. I'm not so sure. The distortion to the much smaller and likely nearer blue companion is not nearly as great yet such a tiny galaxy should be greatly distorted. Though if the interaction is just starting this would be the case. Still, I'm not convinced.

The other large galaxy in the image is NGC 5230, an M101 like spiral. It has a redshift distance of 324 million light years. One note at NED says it might be distorted by the elliptical NGC 5222. Again I'm having problems with this. Shouldn't the elliptical show some distortion after interacting with two large and one small galaxy? I can understand the small one but not the other two. Would it be more likely that NGC 5221's plumes are due to it interacting with NGC 5230 in the distant past? Seems more likely to me. Nothing I found in the literature suggests it, however. Both were discovered by William Herschel on April 12, 1784 but aren't in either Herschel 400 observing program.

There are quite a few other galaxies in the group in my image. The largest after these three is NGC 5226, the small spiral north of NGC 5221. At a redshift distance of 346 million light-years, it could be a distant member though again this might be due to its motion relative the rest rather than a true distance difference.

All possible members with redshift data are shown by name in the annotated image. Those without a catalog designation are too distant to be considered possible members of the Arp 288 group.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp288.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP288

ARP289

ARP 289/NGC 3981 is a spiral galaxy in far eastern Crater just barely in Crater rather than Corvus. At almost 20 degrees south it is the most southern Arp galaxy I've been able to image. Its distance is put at about 100 million light-years by redshift and about 75 million by other methods, mostly Tully-Fisher. Arp put it in his category of Double Galaxies with wind effects. His comment reads: "Very faint diffuse streamers." NED classes it as SAB(s)bc pec.

The problem is that most sources don't see the second galaxy. Of the notes at NED only a very old one (1968) about the time of Arp's Atlas speaks of it being an M51 like galaxy. Apparently, Arp and the note are referring to the blue blob at the south end of the brighter part of the galaxy. The Kanipe-Webb book on the Atlas identifies the blue blob as VV8B. VV stands for the Vorontsov-Velyaminov Interacting Galaxies catalog. But NED shows VV8B as Part of Galaxy, not a separate one. Most today seem to consider the object a massive star forming region in the galaxy rather than a separate galaxy. So what distorted it? Like Arp 184/NGC 1961 some say the distortion is just the way this one was made. Even if true how do you explain it was "made" so differently? Hubble hasn't taken but one very underexposed and useless image showing nothing I can recognize so no help there. Kanipe-Webb just leaves the issue of one or two galaxies here as open to debate. The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on February 3, 1788 but isn't in either of the H400 observing programs.

I can't buy those plumes being just the way this galaxy is. I think it merged with something and the blue blob something left over from the merger which created the huge plumes. I'd love to see some rotational studies of it but couldn't find anything on this.

Modern paper (1994 -- latest at NED) read:
"The two well-defined principal arms of the grand design type in NGC 3981 have high surface brightness. They can be traced for about half a revolution outward from their origin near the center until they abruptly decrease in surface brightness, become more open, and exhibit a smooth appearance. It is the plume-like appearance of the very faint outer "arms" that gives the notation (tides?) in the classification, although no companion is present. The designation simply describes the morphology, not the cause, which probably is not interaction via an encounter but rather is endemic to the galaxy. The heavy main print shows faint HII regions in the outer extensions of the inner arms and in a separate outer arm not connected with the two main inner arms. This third faint outer arm can be faintly seen as a straight segment along the major axis (at the top of the facing print) which then sweeps at a large pitch angle to the right in the orientation of the image here."

1968 paper says:
"Third, after M 51 and NGC 7752-3, classical example of interacting galaxies, the bridges to one of them being the spiral arms of the other, caught by a companion. It is now well-established that M 51 is not unique of its kind, but in its time was an important proof of the generality of the composition and origin of spiral arms and bridges between galaxies. Type: vB - Sbt, Morg - fS6. Photo: VV Atlas No. 8; Arp No. 289. Companion here of type Irr?."

M51 is Arp 85, NGC 7752-3 is Arp 86 which is a true M51 type galaxy pair. Neither paper mentions merger so maybe I'm way off base. Still, I like the idea.

Being so far south my image is rather poor. If seeing would hold this low for several nights I could take a pure RGB image which would be much clearer as I could remove the prism effect that so elongates the stars in my luminance channel. Even RegiStar had trouble aligning the color channels. I probably should have run them through a second time as there's still some nasty prism colors in the corners. Most of which I removed by brute force processing, that is, clone it out. This prism distortion greatly reduced my resolution. Most nights I can't go this low at all so I'm just happy I could get this result. Due to atmospheric absorption this low a lot of light was lost. Even with 60 minutes rather than my normal 40, I couldn't go nearly as deep as normal. Still, I went nearly as deep as most images on the web taken by more southerly located telescopes.

The galaxy is out of the Sloan survey field so there's a dearth of information on the other galaxies in the field.

The bright oval red galaxy in the upper left corner is MCG -03-31-003, a SAB0 galaxy with a redshift virtually the same as Arp 289. It is likely a member of the same group as Arp 289. I see no distortion to it so it likely has nothing to do with the distortion of Arp 289, just an innocent bystander. Just below at the 5:30 position is a very tiny, likely dwarf galaxy, [MPP88] 1154-1935. It has a very small redshift putting it possibly much closer, say 20 million-light years away. If true it is a very tiny galaxy. I have some trouble with this. It likely is further away than its pure redshift indicates. MPP is the Monk Penston Pettini galaxy catalog. I don't know what characteristic it is using for deciding what galaxies to include. No other catalog lists this galaxy that NED has in its database.

The "large" spiral galaxy half-way down the left edge of my image is ESO 572- G 024. It is classed as SBd?. Its redshift is also about the same as Arp 289. Likely another member of its group but again looks quite undisturbed. A couple more likely members of the group are out of the top of my frame. For some reason, I thought they were lower so moved the galaxy up. Think I was looking at the declination and assuming it was positive rather than negative. I've done that before. So I missed them. Just more smudges so not much missed. The only other "interesting" galaxy in the image is the smudge of a galaxy toward the right center of the image. It is ESO 572- G 016. Nothing much is known about it. The rest of the galaxies in the image carry unusual catalog names and no red-shift distance if they are listed at all, most aren't.

Arp's image oriented the same as mine for a change:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp289.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP289

ARP290

ARP 290 is classed by Arp as Group Character: Wind Effects. It does appear "wind blown". The small galaxy is IC 195, the wind blown one is IC 196. Both have a redshift consistent with a distance of about 155 million light years and are magnitude 14 and 13.6 respectively so within range of a 10" scope from a dark site. They are located in Aries.

IC 195 is classed as SAB0 while IC 196 is SBb. Both were discovered by Lewis Swift on October 20, 1889

The only somewhat blue galaxy in the image is SDSS J020352.74+144140.0 SE of Arp 290 3 minutes, just west of the nearby asteroid trail. It is 740 million light years away yet still somewhat blue. The little vertical galaxy below it is 2MASX J02035353+1440074 and IR galaxy at 740 million light years.

The tiny vertical galaxy above IC 196 is 421 million light years distant so not related to Arp 290.

Most interesting to me is 2MASX J02032466+1441521, another strong IR emitting galaxy. It is the "tiny" face on spiral to the west-southwest of Arp 290. It stands out for being so red yet being a spiral. It certainly isn't a tiny galaxy as it is 1.7 billion light years distant. It has to be one heck of a big galaxy. Is the red due to galactic reddening.

There are 3 asteroids in the image. The bright one near Arp 270 is (113736) 2002 TD155. Below it near the very bottom of the image is much fainter 2008 UU198. It was discovered only days before I took this image, though I didn't know this at the time. As indicated by its designation it was the 4970th asteroid discovered after October 15th and before November 1. These automatic systems are finding them rapidly! I took this image Oct. 31 UT. The third asteroid is directly west of the second and a bit fainter. It is 2003 WC175. So while fainter it was found almost 5 years earlier. It is faint as it is estimated, by the minor planet center, to be magnitude 19.7.

SDSS:
http://astronomerica.awardspace.com/SDSS-3/IC195.php

Arp's image of this pair with the 200" Hale telescope is at:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp290.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP290

ARP291

ARP 291 also known as UGC 05832 falls under his classification: Group Character: Wind effects. Usually, this means a double galaxy but this one appears to be alone. NED simply shows it as SB?. Arp's comment is: "Main body has cylindrical appearance." Note the very blue fuzzy. irregular, galaxy to the northeast. That is CGCG 065-090. Both it and Arp 291 have the same redshift putting them both at 72 million light years. Rather close for such small galaxies. So it is quite possible it is the cause of the "wind effects". SDSS shows the north end of it as a separate galaxy SDSS J104306.17+133051.3 with no redshift estimate. Probably it is just part of the main galaxy, though the coordinates for CGCG 065-090 are for the lower part, not the middle. Still, I think it just a single galaxy. North of these is the very odd, thin but curved, galaxy FGC 126A FGC=Flat Galaxy Catalog. It has a detached piece on its west end. That piece carries the separate designation SDSS J104256.10+133247.3. The former has a redshift distance of about 310 million light years so is a much larger galaxy than the other two. The detached piece shows no distance. In the DSS and Sloan images, it isn't detached. I don't understand what I did to "detach" it. It is detached in the raw FITS image so not due to processing. Still, Sloan did give it a separate designation and magnitude, 16.5 for the main galaxy and 18.0 for the western piece. In any case, it is safe to assume it isn't involved with Arp 291 being about 4 times more distant. Still, it is an interesting galaxy. NED doesn't try to classify it or CGCG 065-090. They do make for an interesting field.

Even more confusing is the faint blob seen in the lower "ring" of Arp 291. Follow the western (right) "arm" around to near its tip. There is a small oval blob elongated along the "arm". NED shows that as SDSS J104248.72+132710.8 and SDSS J104248.73+132710.8 ID. The former is classed as a galaxy the latter as part of a galaxy. Both in the same entry. Then things really get confusing. The magnitude is listed as 15.6 with a long diameter of over 1 minute. This matches Arp 291 not the blob in the arm though that is at the coordinates. But it gets worse, the distance is listed as 2.5 billion light years! Safe to say something is screwed up here! I suppose the blob could be a distant galaxy seen through Arp 291 but the size is obviously wrong.

More correct, it would appear, is the little orange galaxy northwest of Arp 291 halfway to the bright blue star. It is SDSS J104246.40+132811.9 at magnitude 17.8 and a distance of just over 900 million light years.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp291.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' R=2x10'x3 GB=1x10'x3 (Clouds limited color data) STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP291

ARP292

ARP 292, IC 575, or what is it like to be run over by a hoard of geostationary satellites? This one is in the geostationary satellite belt as seen from my latitude. Only by waiting for it to get low in the west could I move the belt's perspective such that it fell below the object. But that put it down in lousy seeing. Also, it meant the star colors wouldn't align well as they are displaced by the prism effect of our atmosphere. Blue moved so much during just a 10 minute frame I couldn't get it to align very well so stars have a blue fringe. Another problem of viewing through our atmosphere. A few trails can be seen above the main belt. I tried to reduce them as much as possible but couldn't eliminate them completely. I didn't try with those below Arp 292. The trails squiggle back and forth thanks to our unsteady atmosphere.

ARP 292 is a very strange spiral galaxy. It looks much like M104 seen a bit more edge on except the dust lane is skewed a bit from the plane of the disk carrying the spiral arms. At the SE end, it seems to suddenly curve down even more. I don't see this in Arp's image, just a straight tilted dust lane. The difference appears one of color. Arp's rather monochromatic blue image does resemble my blue image quite closely. When red and green are added the shape changes.

In any case, it wasn't the dust lane that interested Arp. He classes this under "Group Character: Wind effects. I'm not sure what he's seeing here. There is a large halo of stars around the main galaxy, again much like M104. Though in this case it appears slightly offset to the southeast. Maybe that's what he is referring to. I've attached my image of M104 reduced to how it would appear if at Arp 292's distance. Notice the similarity. Though its halo is more symmetrical than that of Arp 292. Compared to M104 it is much redder and the halo much bluer besides the tilted dust lane.

ARP 292 is also known as IC 575, an SA pec spiral in Sextans. Some sources consider the disk a ring. Considering the viewing angle I'm not sure that's known for sure. Its redshift puts it about 285 million light-years from us. This puts it over 9 times further away than M104. IC 575 was discovered by Stephane Javelle on March 9, 1893. He also found IC 0574 discussed below that same night.

While Arp classes it under "Group Character" those right around it are of unknown redshift so may not form a group. The galaxy down and right is MCG -01-25-057, no redshift data. The one above it is 2MASX J09543313-0650143 and the one down and to the left is PGC 1027592. No redshift data on either.

Going further away down below Arp 292 in the geostationary satellite mess is IC 0574 also at about the same distance as Arp 292 so we can say they are partners. It is classed as SA0. I find no redshift data on the other galaxies in the image. The spiral to the NE (upper left) of Arp 292 is PGC 028586. The one west and slightly north of Arp 292 with an orange core is 2MASX J09540184-0649353. Directly above 292 at the top of the frame is APMUKS(BJ) B095203.23-062758.2. The fuzzy comet-like galaxy just below the geostationary satellite trails to the SW of Arp 292 is PGC 1026068. Many other galaxies are cataloged but none carry any useful, to us, information so I'll stop here.

For those wondering where the RGB satellite trails went, all were in the background which when set to gray then vanished for the most part. A couple still can be seen if you look closely. With only 4 subframes usable I didn't have enough for both good satellite rejection and good a good noise level so settled on a good noise level and left them in without trying to clone them out.

Arp's image, upside down from my image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp292.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP292

ARP293

ARP 293 is a pair of interacting galaxies, NGC 6285 (right) and NGC 6286 in the constellation of Draco. A tidal bridge between the two is barely visible in my image. The northern galaxy is classed as S0 pec. There seems too much fragmentation and tidal plumes for me to tell what it was before the interaction. The southern galaxy is considered an edge on Sb spiral. Both appear to be LINER galaxies. Redshift puts them about 250 million light-years distant. Some sources say NGC 6286 (southern galaxy) is a forming polar ring galaxy. Certainly, it has an odd half ring tidal feature that is well out of its plane of rotation. Also, its eastern arm appears nearly severed from the core with a brightening at the very end of this lopped off arm. This may be a foreshortened bright arm arc. Arp classed it under Group Character: Wind effects. His comment about it was: "Companion NW. Diffuse arc south-following brighter galaxy." Apparently referring to the same feature some see as the start of a polar ring feature. This may also be the "wind effect" he refers to.

NGC 6285 and 6286 were discovered by Lewis Swift but at different times. NGC 6285 sometime in 1886. The exact date is not known that I could find. NGC 6286 was seen earlier on August 13, 1885.

Some catalogs consider it a triple galaxy including the very edge on UGC 10641, an Sd galaxy to the southwest. It is about 240 million light-years distant per its redshift. I see no hint of interaction with the other two, however. At a redshift that puts it 235 million light-years away is the elliptical galaxy UGC 10646 at the very top of my image. Keep in mind that orbital motions within a group of galaxies can create a range of redshifts such as we see here such that the real distance to each is not really shown by the redshift. Thus, these galaxies are all likely at virtually the same distance and form a rather nice "local group" of their own. Only two of which are so close they are interacting.

In the southwest corner (lower right) are a bunch of faint galaxies, many of which seem to align in concentric arcs around a rather bright orange galaxy. I find no redshift data on any of these but they are in the position of a galaxy cluster candidate known as NSC J165634+585212. It has a photographic redshift distance (likely based on 2MASS K band data) of 1.8 billion light-years. NED lists no size or population for it.

The barred spiral on the very eastern edge of my image is SBS 1659+589. NED has no redshift data on it but I'd expect it likely a member of the same group as Arp 293. Just beyond it out of my frame are NGC 6290 and NGC 6291 with a redshift that puts them at 235 million light-years and again, members of the same group as Arp 293.

Arp's image
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp293.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP293

ARP294

Accelerate to ramming speed!

Arp 294 is an interacting pair of galaxies about 135 million light-years distant in southern Ursa Major. It appears the upper one is about to ram into the lower though this isn't likely the case at all. The image did remind me of a much-criticized line in the B5 series when a spaceship Captain ordered: "Ramming speed!". Arp classified them under Group Character: Long filaments. I'd have classed it under Wind Effects but it isn't my catalog. While the northern galaxy, NGC 3788, does have a long filament that is typical of tidal interaction, the lower galaxy, NGC 3786, has two rather unusual filaments that look a bit "wind blown". They are likely tidally created, however. Arp did see these as his comment on the pair is simply; "Peculiar filaments." NGC 3786 is classified as (R')SAB(r)a pec and has an active nucleus that appears to be a Seyfert 1. NGC 3788 is classed as SAB(rs)ab pec. Both shine at 13th magnitude so should be visible in an 8" scope under dark skies. The filaments, however, may challenge even the largest scopes.

NGC 3786 was discovered by John Herschel on April 10, 1831 while he found NGC 3788 four years earlier on April 29, 1827.

The small galaxy just below NGC 3786 is SDSS J113939.20+315320.4 at 460 million light-years. The red vertical spindle galaxy east of NGC 3788 is SDSS J114002.67+315607.1 is about 780 million light-years distant.

The spiral galaxy about 5 minutes of arc southwest of Arp 294 is CGCG 157-007 about 400 million light-years away. It appears rather distorted with tidal debris. This interaction must have happened some time ago as there are no obvious nearby candidates for a partner. The "small" galaxy to its west is SDSS J113918.50+315121 at 1 billion light-years. Far too distant to be involved. Further west of it is the even "smaller" galaxy SDSS J113912.92+315120.5 at 1.6 billion light-years.

The galaxies and quasars I was able to find redshift data on at NED are shown on the annotated image. The most distant galaxy is 5.3 billion light-years distant shining at fainter than 21st magnitude so at about my limit on this image. Quasars range from just 2.9 to 12 billion light-years.

SDSS image:
http://astronomerica.awardspace.com/SDSS-27/NGC3786-8.php

The SDSS page makes reference to NGC 3793 as being CGCG 157-007. This is wrong. NGC 3793 is a single star east, not west of Arp 294. To find it on the SDSS image go from NGC 3786 to the bright red star then continue almost of the same line about the same distance to this rather bright star. It is directly below the vertical spindle of SDSS J114002.67+315607.1 mentioned above. NGC 3797 is also a star in my image but just out of the frame of the SDSS image. For a more complete discussion of this mix-up see the NGC project entry for NGC 3793. http://www.ngcicproject.org/dss/dss_n3700.asp I can't explain why the very red star in the Sloan image is white with a blue halo in my shot. SDSS uses three IR filters along with three visual band filters and it could be those colors are so strong they skew the color to red. Very bright stars cause blue halos in my filters but the star in question is spectral class G0 so a pretty white star in reality. It is GSC 2523:1968/HIP 56900 for those who want to look it up.

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp294.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP294

ARP295

Arp 295 is another Zwicky connected pair of galaxies. The southern one is MCG -04-60-021 which is classed as Sc? pec and is a possibly LINER galaxy. The northern component is MCG -01-60-022 and classed as Sb pec. The really weird thing about it I don't see mentioned anyplace. That is its western half is brighter than the eastern. It seems to have a very sudden change of intensity running nearly vertically but slightly northeast to southwest right through the core. Very weird. The pair is located in the northeastern corner of Aquarius just across the border from Pisces.

The distance to this pair is a bit difficult to pin down. Since they are obviously connected they are at the same distance yet their redshifts denoting relative velocity as well as distance are quite different. By redshift, the southern galaxy is 284 million light-years away while the northern is 301. Most of the other "major" galaxies in the image have redshifts of about 280 to 295 million light years so it is likely this is about the correct distance to these two as well. IC 1505, the large elliptical-like galaxy to the northwest has a redshift distance of 281 million light years. About all I find on it is are several comments that it is NOT Arp 295 as some authorities apparently claim. 2MASX J23420451-0334508 the spiral above the northern component of Arp 295 is at 296 million light years.

There are three small galaxies directly west of the southern component. The faintest and furthest west is GALEX 2502913013803127866 an X-ray galaxy at 291 million light years. The middle one is APMUKS(BJ) B233906.66-035605.1 at 284 million light years and the eastern galaxy is MRK 0933, a compact galaxy at 285 million light years.

The face on spiral at the top of the image is APMUKS(BJ) B233913.30-034624.3 at 298 million light years. The apparent edge on the blue galaxy to its east (left) is APMUKS(BJ) B233934.16-034639.4 at 296 million light years. While the elliptical southwest of the face on spiral and northwest of IC 1505 is 2MASX J23412885-0331266 at 288 million light years. IC 1505 was discovered by Lewis Swift on November 12, 1891. There's no discovery data available for the other galaxies in the image.

The face on spiral nearly due west (right) of the lower component of Arp 295 is 2MASX J23411291-0337538 at 295 million light years. Not all galaxies in the image are members of the group. At the top of the image directly above the near edge on blue galaxy APMUKS(BJ) B233934.16-034639.4 is 2MASX J23420657-0328278 at 1.5 billion light years. To its east (left) just above my image but coming into it as a fuzzy halo is 2MASX J23422688-0327555 at 620 million light years.

There are 4 asteroids in the image. The faintest is closest to Arp 295 about halfway between the northern component and IC 1505. It is (186080) 2001 SO230 at magnitude 19.2. Above it and slightly left is the brightest asteroid, 220052) 2002 RY101 at 18.0. Above IC 1505 and level with the face on spiral near the top of the image is 2002 TD17 at magnitude 18.7. These last two are moving only in right ascension which is rare. The final asteroid slightly below center near the right edge. It is (136974) 1998 RO50 at magnitude 18.2. The reason the asteroids are sending a sloppy "A" in International Morris Code is that I took 6 frames but the second was lost to clouds. That created a gap in the trail but shows they were in retrograde motion moving west in the sky at the time I took the image. The "dot" is fainter than the rest of the trail as that image was partly lost to clouds as well. One advantage to not needing to guide is that you don't lose the target when clouds hit. It just picks up where you left off without me doing anything. In fact, I was probably sound asleep when it happened.

The night was very hazy with lots of gunk over the lake that I was imaging through. This created nasty halos about many stars. Seeing this when I started I set the system for 6 rather than my normal 4 luminosity and 4 rather than my normal 2 for color data but clouds wiped out one L and the last two red and first two green images. I really need to redo this one this fall under better skies.

This field is out of the Sloan survey area but I did find a shot of this group taken by the one-meter scope at the Naval Observatory in Flagstaff. Note they put the distance at 270 million light years. I don't know how this was determined.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap051008.html

Arp's image:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp295.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=5x10' RG=2x10'x3 B=4x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for ARP295

ARP296

Two smashups -- 5 galaxies -- What a mess that makes. While several pairs of Arp Atlas entries are close to each other in angular measurement these two are the closest. Though they are far apart in reality.

To me, this is a case of string cheese and a massive train wreck all in one image. Arp created a lot of confusion on this pair of entries when in some places he reversed them. There's also confusion on which galaxy is IC 694. More on that later.

Arp 296 is the string cheese part of the entry. It is a pair of galaxies apparently nearly connected by a long filament that appears to be drawn out from the lower galaxy. There's a counter filament going the other direction as well that is much shorter. The lower galaxy is SDSS J112850.64+583336.7, two minutes north is PGC 035345. NED classes the lower as S: pec and the northern as SB(r)ab and notes a lot of HII emission not seen in my image. Both are about 800 million light-years away. Are they really an interacting pair? Odd how one has severe tidal tails while the other is rather normal looking though its eastern arm suddenly becomes very faint and somewhat drawn out. Though I'd think we'd see more distortion than this from an interaction. Or is the arm weak because its stars contribute to the plume apparently coming from the lower galaxy? I didn't find any help in the literature. My search wasn't all that great however so if someone out there knows of some help here let us know. Arp's comment on the pair reads: "Long straight filament almost to attachment with arm of spiral." By spiral, I assume he means PGC 035345 as NED shows both as spirals.

Much nearer at only about 150 million light years, Arp 299 is a quite spectacular train wreck in progress. I didn't realize all the outlying plumes around it or I'd have used a lot more time on this image. Maybe later this year I'll get a chance to try and add time to it. I did take a lot more data but half of it was so poor I threw it out. The double data was an accident, I didn't realize the two Arp's were in the same field and imaged it twice, once on a very poor night. But you can barely see a north going plume that is rather narrow and eventually curves a bit left. Another, fainter one is seen to its west Below there's a bright wide and short plume due south with a far fainter and far larger plume to the southwest.

The identity of the two galaxies is very confused. Some sources say NGC 3690 is the western galaxy with IC 694 being the eastern member. In fact, most of the literature I saw says this but newer literature identifies IC 694 as the small galaxy to the northwest but still in the plume of the colliding pair. I'm going with this interpretation and have so marked the annotated image. For more on this see http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-3881/118/1/162/pdf/990040.web.pdf (PDF pages 22-23, Journal pages 183-184). Note that their discussion of the plumes matches my image as to the northern plumes (fainter one west of the main one is also visible in my image) but I see a much larger plume to the southwest than they show. More data will likely settle the issue.

NGC 3690 was discovered by William Herschel on March 18, 1790, but is in neither H400 program. IC 694 was discovered by Bindon Stoney on January 27, 1852.

Is IC 694 involved with Arp 299? Arp seems to have included it. NED does class it as a starburst galaxy with an active galactic nucleus, no other classification given. Its redshift distance is nearly 190 million light years. If right that puts it about 40 million light years beyond the train wreck. While it is remotely possible this difference is entirely due to a relative motion I find that a bit difficult to accept. It may have passed nearby a billion years ago at a distance great enough to not distort it but close enough to trigger the starburst and feed its black hole. A process that could be continuing today. But I doubt it had anything to do with the train wreck that is Arp 299.

Of the colliding pair, the western one is classed as SBm? pec by NED with the eastern one classed as IBm pec. How they detect a bar in either is beyond me. They both appear to be a bunch of bright star regions scattered about with what is left of the cores well off center.

The confusion continues with a pair of galaxies in the south-east corner of the image. I note in the annotated image the southern one (rather blue) as being 0.59 billion light years distant. NED is very confusing about this pair. In the position of the northern galaxy, they show 2MASX J11300711+5826154 with no distance. The blue galaxy is 13" of arc south-southeast of this galaxy. At about the position of the southern galaxy NED shows two galaxies as VII Zw 405 NOTES01 and VII Zw 405 NOTES02 with a separation of 3". While my seeing wasn't all that good I thought I should be able to see that lower blue one as a close double. Looking at the notes at NED several different sources say VII Zw 405 is a double galaxy with the northern one being red and the southern blue with a separation of -- 13" of arc. Their own notes would seem to say the southern blue object is just one galaxy. The position NED gives for VII Zw 405 matches the blue galaxy's position. Only the southern member has a redshift measurement. So who is right here I have no idea.

Low center there's a nice tight group of galaxies with the same red shift distance of 0.56 - 0.57 billion light years that are blue. One apparent member is somewhat redder but has no redshift data. I marked it with a question mark.

Hubble image of Arp 299 (its a tad better than mine):
http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/large/heic0810as.jpg

Arp's image of Arp 296
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp296.jpeg

Arp's image of Arp 299
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Figures/big_arp299.jpeg

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

Related Designations for ARP296