The Double Cluster, NGC 869 and NGC 884 (right to left), are a pair of naked eye clusters in Perseus. While the eye sees them as only an elongated fuzzy patch, at least that's how I see it, even a pair of binoculars will show it is two star balls with some resolution of the brighter stars. In even a poor "dime store" telescope it is a grand site if it came with a low enough power eyepiece. Most papers and catalogs consider these two clusters to be related, sharing a common halo of faint stars. Thus they formed at the same time and are at the same distance. The APOD astronomers put their distance at 7000 light-years and their age at 13 million years. Wikipedia says they are 7500 light-years away but agrees as to age saying 12.8 million years. WEBDA, however, gives different data for each. It says NGC 869 is 6800 light-years away and 11.7 million years old. NGC 884 is 7600 light-years distant and 10.8 million years old. These differences would argue against their common formation. Since WEBDA seems to be an outlier I will go with the majority and ignore WEBDA.
This was one of my very first color images so very poorly processed. I can't even find that I kept the original data though it may be on a backup drive somewhere in the bowels of our storage area. I did a minor bit of reprocessing of the JPG image to remove a nasty gradient. I didn't even save the TIFF image so couldn't do much with it. Also, it was taken with my old filters that create nasty halos around bright stars like those making up this image. I need to redo it but since common objects don't interest me so might be a while, if ever, that I get to it.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=3x5' RGB=2x5', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | DoubleCluster_3x5L_2x5RGB67R.JPG
| PGC 60095 is more commonly known as the Draco Dwarf Galaxy. There are many dwarf galaxies orbiting ours. I've run some of them like the Leo I, II and III. The Magellanic Clouds are often included but some say they are just passing by and not really in orbit. The debate rages on with those two and may swing back tomorrow. The Draco Dwarf is one of the very smallest of these orbiting galaxies. It contains very few stars, they number only a few thousand. It contains far fewer than most globular star clusters for instance but covers a much larger area of space. The stars are so spread out it is hard to recognize as a galaxy. In fact, it covers an area slightly larger than my field of view. This makes it difficult to find in my image. Most of the very faint stars in this image are members of this galaxy located some 250,000 or maybe 300,000 light years away. The distance depends on who you believe. The scope was pointed to the center of the galaxy though the stars aren't centered on the center of the galaxy. Most are off center to the upper left. There are members going off the top and left edge of the image as well. Since these weren't seen until I processed the image I didn't realize how off-center from its supposed position it brighter members were. I took this image I had planned on getting another night or two of data but somehow never did, then forgot about it. I was cleaning out the hard drive months later when I came across these files. The hard drive in the control computer, at the time, was 100 gigabyte drive which filled rapidly with data I have to move off onto an external drive. Each image requires about 2 to 3 gigabytes of data so the hard drive will fill rapidly. I now have several terabytes of data on external drives. I will soon need to buy two more drives (one backs up the other). Keeping track of it all is getting to be a nightmare. This image used 6 10 minute luminosity images and 4 10 minute images in each color; red, green and blue. To get as deep as possible (this goes to at least 22nd magnitude) I combined all 18 images to make one synthetic luminosity image. I've since learned that actually hurts the depth of the image some but haven't gotten around to correcting my error.
Current articles on this galaxy say it consists of mostly dark matter. This is stuff that can't be seen, doesn't interact with ordinary matter except by its gravity and is still a mystery. We know it exists as otherwise, our galaxy would spin far slower, galaxy clusters would fly apart as would this particular galaxy. It takes a huge amount of dark matter to hold it together. Motions of even the stars near the edge show they are strongly bound to the galaxy. This can only be if most of this galaxy is made up of this mysterious dark matter. So while this image appears nearly empty it is full of invisible mystery stuff.
You can read a bit more on it at: http://spider.seds.org/spider/LG/dra_dw.html
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=6x10' RGB=4x10' all 18 combined to make a pseudo L image, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | PGC60095AV6X10RGB4X10R2.JPG
| DWB nebulae seem rather ill-defined. But for the Propeller Nebula, DWB 111, I've never really been able to see them as but a bright area in a much larger HII filled field. In the case of DWB 18, there are some nice dark nebulae crossing a slight brightening of the huge emission nebula that occupies much of Cygnus. DWB 18 is located about in the center of the great dark rift that goes down much of Cygnus. It makes for a pretty field thanks to the dark lanes. I found no entries for any of them in SIMBAD though a rather bright area toward the left side of the image is listed as a dark nebula, DOBASHI 2314. The only obvious feature that can be identified is the cometary nebula toward the top of the image, GM 1-27. It has a red blob in it if you look closely. This is the Herbig-Haro object HH 214. Look on the nebulous arc halfway between the star in the arc and the one to the upper left.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10 RGB=2x10, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME
Related Designations for DWB018DWB018, | DWB18L4X10RGB2X10-1336.JPG
| Much of the Milky Way seen in the area of the constellation of Cygnus the Swan is full of weak hydrogen alpha emission. These huge clouds of ionized hydrogen are best seen in wide field instruments rather than the narrow field one I have. Sometimes a small part of one of these huge clouds has an interesting shape that has caused astronomers to give it its own designation. DWB 111 is one of these. It is called the Propeller Nebula. A wide field shot of this nebula taken with a small 3" refractor at Mt. Wilson (home of the 100" scope) is at: http://www.starimager.com/Image%20Gallery%20Pages/Hydrogen%20Alpha%20Images/dwb%20111.htm See the notes section under the image for more information on the DWB catalog. The linked image shows part of the huge cloud of which DWB111 is but a small part. Very little is known about this nebula, including its distance or even the star that is causing it to glow. We don't even know if it is really part of the huge cloud or not. It is normally imaged in H-alpha light but my image is purely an LRGB image so the contrast is quite a bit lower than it would be in H-alpha light but the colors are closer to "real". Due to the lack of detail in this object and to decrease needed exposure time I've taken and reproduced it at 1.5" per pixel rather than my normal 1" per pixel.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10'x3 RGB=1x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME Related Designations for DWB111DWB111, | DWB111L4X10X3RGB1X10R.JPG
| In keeping with my interest in imaging things no one in their right mind would try for, here is Dwingeloo 1. It is a heavily obscured barred spiral that wasn't discovered until 1994 in a radio telescope survey for obscured galaxies carried out with the Dwingeloo 25 meter dish. It was known as the Dwingeloo Obscured Galaxy Survey or -- DOGS! The dish is in The Netherlands and was the world's largest steerable radio telescope when built in 1956. In 1957 the 76.2 meter Jodrell Bank Mark 1 dish replaced it as the world's largest steerable disk. It is located on the edge of the Dwingeloo Heath about three miles south of the town of Dwingeloo (which no longer exists as a town as it is now part of Westerveld). A local ham here does moon bounce and knows all about the scope but has little interest in astronomy.
The galaxy is about the size of M33 and has two satellite galaxies Dwingeloo 2 that's out of my frame to the right and MB 3 that is in the frame. Look to the right of the Alberio like (blue and gold) double star for a faint oval blob. Dwingeloo 1 is classed as a barred spiral while MB 3 is a dwarf spherical. Both are members of the Maffei group. They are thought to be about 10 million light-years distant. The telescope is no longer used for radio astronomy but is used by hams for moonbounce communications.
So far all attempts to pick up Dwingeloo 2 have failed due to our lousy weather and it being even fainter than Dwingeloo 1. It is still on the list.
For more on the discovery of Dwingeloo 1 see http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1994/51/ I find it interesting I show more of the galaxy than the Isaac Newton Telescope. http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/telescopes/int/
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME | DWINGELOO1L4X10RGB2X10R-CROP125.JPG
DWINGELOO1L4X10RGB2X10R.JPG
| The Egg Nebula/IV Zw 67/CRL 2688/PK 80-6.1 is a bipolar protoplanetary nebula in Cygnus almost 8 degrees south of the North American Nebula. It's very uncertain distance is listed at 3000 light years. If correct (a very major if) I measure it at 1.5 light-years in length. The nebula is being created by a dying star but hasn't yet reached the planetary nebula stage. The star is shedding its outer layers in pulses every few hundred years. A disk around its equator hides the star from our view. The disk of dust shows as a reddish brown band between the two halves in my image and in detail in the Hubble image. The disk may be partly to blame for the bipolar appearance of the nebula in that it hides the equatorial regions of the gas shells from the light of the dying star. Whether the disk is a true accretion disk is yet to be confirmed however though that is thought likely.
The two jet like features coming from both poles are a bit harder to explain. It may be that rather than one dying star it is two and these are jets from the poles of the two stars. The jets create holes in the dust shell letting more light escape through these holes than elsewhere. A lot more study is needed on this however.
You can read more about it and see the highly detailed HST image at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/searchlight-beams.html This is a false color image as it uses IR light frequencies as well as visual ones so doesn't represent true colors nor does a very different one below.
Another view from the HST, this time in polarized light where each color represents a different angle of polarization is at: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_787.html Since starlight is normally not polarized the stars are white in the image.
In my image, which I hope is fairly true to visual light colors, shows the two halves have a somewhat different color. The northern half being bluer than the southern. I suppose this is due to the dust shells coloring the light rather than due to emission lines.
Seeing was rather poor when I first took it in November 2012. It has been on my reshoot list for a night of better seeing. That finally happened July 31, 2016. Seeing was about 2.2" rather than 2.6" in 2012. So it is a better image but still not what I would like. Seeing better than 2" is exceedingly rare of late. For an even more detailed image see Chris' recent post at http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/545211-an-exotic-objet-the-cygnus-egg-using-the-c11ehd-f10-st10xme/ http://www.astrosurf.com/chd/egg.htm
Conditions went bad before I could get a second round of color. Fortunately, for this rather bright object that was all that was needed.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10 RGB=1x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME Related Designations for EGGEGG, NEB, | EGGL4X10-RGB1X10.JPG
EGGL4X10-RGB1X10CROP150.JPG
| Eris is a dwarf planet that is almost as large as Pluto and much farther away. In fact, it is the most distant object known to be orbiting in our solar system. Space probes like Voyager 1 and 2 are even farther away but aren't orbiting. Sedna can get farther from the Sun than Eris but currently is closer. So Eris currently marks the most distant known object in our solar system, about 3 times the distance of Pluto right now. The image I ran was cropped from a much larger image. That turned out useful. On Jan 22 and 24 (all UTC) I reimaged Eris. When I compared the new images I realized I was seeing some of the same stars. In two months it had moved only a fraction of my field of view which is only about 34' wide. But I'd lost the original position just out of the frames on the left. Also since the temperature was 25C colder the image scale and distortions in the optics didn't match. RegiStar, however, was able to correct for all this as well as other problems and registered all three images nicely. I then combined these to make a three frame movie. I left the circle I'd drawn around Eris in the movie for all three frames. I should have circled the other two positions as well as it may be hard to find toward the upper right-hand corner (northwest corner). When I imaged Pluto several years ago it moved as far in two days as Xena - er Eris (I still prefer the rejected name) has in 2 months!
You will notice it has changed direction. While it is well west (right) of the first image it is moving up and to the left. It obviously had to have been moving right earlier. In fact, it was moving 0.0003" of arc per second due west when imaged in November. In January it was moving 0.0002" north and 0.0001" east per second. So the first jump from left to upper right took 2 months while the second jump is 2 days. Midway between it slowed to nearly being motionless before reversing direction. Those familiar with relative orbital motion will see that I've caught Eris at the turn around from retrograde to prograde (direct) motion. That is, in November we were rapidly passing Eris as we speed around our inner track about the sun while two months later we were mostly moving away from Eris so its forward motion is now being seen. Soon we will be going backwards on the opposite side of the sun from Eris and thus it will speed at a rather high rate eastward. I caught it at the turn around point so the motion was minimal. The northern motion is due to our orbits being tilted with respect to each other. Since Eris is so far away it is barely moving, most of the motion we see is due to the motion of the earth, not Eris. Here are a couple links on this subject for those who want to know more. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap011220.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrograde_motion The first shows a time lapse of Jupiter and Saturn moving over nearly a years time. The first go east (direct motion) then reverse to retrograde than back to direct again. My image covers only about 20 minutes of arc, the linked image covers about 40 degrees, 120 times wider than mine so the scale of motion for planets is much greater than that for distant Eris. The second link is a Wiki article on the subject.
For reasons lost to time, the initial image is 3 10 minute frames while the second is 6 three minute images and the third 7 2 minute images. All taken binned to 1.5" per pixel. Related Designations for ERISERIS, | ERISJAN22AND24-2009-6X2large.gif
| The Fath is a small cluster of galaxies, near the center of the larger cluster Abell 262. Located in Andromeda, it is at a distance of about 210 million light-years and includes many NGC galaxies. See my annotated image for details. The elliptical galaxy, NGC 708, anchors the cluster. I found this explanation for why it is named The Fath.
"The Fath is named after astronomer Edward Arthur Fath, 1880-1959. There does not seem to be any historical connection between Dr. Fath and the cluster. This suggests that it is named as such, simply because the cluster looks like the letter 'F'." I asked Dr. Pete Schultz (he punched holes in a comet and the moon), who did his undergrad work at Carlton College where Dr. Fath did much of his later work, what he knew about the group being named for him. While Fath was something of a legend at the college this was the first he'd heard of the cluster being named for him. So far he's turned up nothing. If he finds anything I'll update this.
"Dr. Fath did groundbreaking research that led to determining that spiral nebulae are actually distant galaxies." http://bf-astro.com/fath.htm
NGC 708 is the cD elliptical galaxy that anchors the Abell cluster. The cluster, in turn, is part of the Pisces-Perseus supercluster. Many papers speak of it having a dust lane across the nucleus at right angles to the radio axis of the galaxy. I don't see the dust lane in my image. It is likely too narrow for my resolution.
The annotated image notes the catalog name for apparent cluster members. I considered any with a redshift of 150 to 270 million light-years to be a member with the difference due to orbital velocities. Those outside this range are noted only by their redshift distance.
All sources agree NGC 704 is a galaxy pair. The problem is NED and SIMBAD can't agree on who is who. NED lists the northern galaxy as NGC 704B and the southern galaxy isn't listed at all. NED lists the faint galaxy to the southeast of the pair as NGC 704A which makes no sense. SIMBAD lists the northern as NGC 704A and the southern star-like galaxy as NGC 704B. Adding to the confusion the NGC project points to the lower galaxy to be NGC 704 making no mention of the upper galaxy yet in the text calls it the second brightest of the group. That might apply to the upper galaxy but not the lower. Also, they call it round while the brighter NGC 704B is oval. My head is spinning. Since I use NED as my "authority" I've gone with their designations though I consider that wrong in this case. That is A and B galaxies are reverse labeled.
Adding to the mistakes associated with this image is NGC 700 which some sources incorrectly attribute to PGC 6924 to the north. They are correctly labeled on my annotated image.
NGC 700, 709, 710, 714 and 717 were discovered by Bindon Stoney on October 28, 1850. NGC 703, 704 705 and 708 were discovered by William Herschel on September 21, 1786. None are in either of the Herschel 400 programs.
VI Zw 088 and VI Zw 095 are described in notes as "neutral fuzzy spherical compact" galaxies. PGC 006974 seems to have some tidal sprays off the east and west sides. IC 1737 appears to be just a double star. The position given is between two blue stars. UGC 01319 has star clouds in its arms that are brighter than its core. Weird.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4X10' RGB=2X10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME Related Designations for FATHNGC 0708, UGC 01348, CGCG 522-039, CGCG 0149.9+3555, MCG +06-05-031, GIN 105, B2 0149+35, 2MASX J01524648+3609065, 2MASXi J0152464+360906, 2MASS J01524644+3609065, GALEX J015246.3+360906, GALEXASC J015246.38+360906.7 , GALEXMSC J015246.35+360906.6 , WBL 054-015, LDCE 0115 NED019, HDCE 0099 NED018, CAN 014 NED01, USGC U081 NED55, HOLM 049A, MAPS-PP O_1225_0368467A, NFP J015246.5+360907, PGC 006962, SSTSL2 J015246.47+360906.7, UZC J015246.3+360906, [WB92] 0149+3552, NVSS J015246+360908, VLSS J0152.7+3609, 6C B014949.6+355432, TXS 0149+359, 73W 149, 1RXS J015244.7+360855, 1WGA J0152.7+3609, 2XMM J015246.2+360905, 2XMMp J015246.2+360906, ABELL 0262:[FD77] 01, ABELL 0262:[MS77] 01, ABELL 0262:[L84] G1, ABELL 0262:[BO85] 004, ABELL 0262:[ZBO89] O3, ABELL 0262:[ZBO89] R3, ABELL 0262:[CBW93] A, LGG 037:[G93] 011, ABELL 0262:[PL95] BCG, [SLH97] A01069, ABELL 0262:[BTM97] 1, ABELL 0262:[CAE99], [MO2001] J015246.5+360907.1, [LVO2003] J015245.0+360930, [MB2007] J028.1935+36.1523, [LPP2009] 0149+359(1), ABELL 0262:[ZAC2011] BCG, FATH, NGC708, | FATHL4X10RGB2X10X3-ID.JPG
FATHL4X10RGB2X10X3CROPr.JPG
FATHL4X10RGB2X10X3r.JPG
| This image was an opportunity to catch two objects on my to-do list at the same time. In the upper right, we have the 3 galaxy group WBL 142 comprised of three NGC galaxies, NGC 2385, 2388 and 2389 all about 200 million light-years distant. Also in the image in the lower left is the flat galaxy FGC 633 also known as UGC 03879 among 13 other designations at NED. It has a pair of faint round galaxies off its northwest ansa but like many of the galaxies in the image aren't listed at NED. FGC 0633 has about the same redshift as the 3 NGC galaxies so is likely related. In fact, the group of 4 is known as HDCE 0444. The field is located in northern Gemini north-northwest of Castor.
All four of these galaxies are quite different. Two appear rather red with little new star formation going on. NGC 2389 is a nice barred spiral with many short arm segments built up of star clusters. While it obviously has lots of HII regions they may be below my resolution limit as none showed up. It was spotted by IRAS indicating strong IR emission. With its blue color, it isn't all that surprising it is found in a UV catalog as well. Blue stars are new and formed in dust clouds that emit lots of IR light due to being heated by the young hot stars they contain. So oddly, blue galaxies can be strong in infrared light as well as ultraviolet light. NGC 2388 is considered a luminous infrared galaxy and is listed has having HII emission. That would indicate it isn't as dead as its red color would indicate. LIRG galaxies usually have intense star formation going on, just hidden behind a curtain of dust glowing brightly in IR light from the heat of all the newly formed stars hidden behind the dust cloud. NGC 2385 is an edge-on galaxy with a large halo around it. It too is red but also listed in both an IR and UV catalog. It too has HII emission. So it too likely has star formation hidden from us by dust. FGC 0633 is so edge-on we can't say much about it other than it certainly is thin. But it too is listed in IR and UV catalogs so is apparently rather active. It might be quite interesting if we could see it face on. I wonder if it might not look something like NGC 2389. I do find its irregular nature rather odd. Probably due to a very irregular arm structure when seen face on. My wife describes it as kinky.
While the 9th data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey covers this field only a few of its galaxies have been entered into NED, none with redshift data. The data I used comes from older measurements. In fact, only these 4 galaxies have redshift data at NED. I wouldn't have made an annotated image with so few to annotate but the field also turned up 5 asteroids. All with very short trails. Then there are some galaxies not listed at NED that look exactly like the short asteroid trails in the image. I decided I needed to point out the real asteroids. See the annotated image for details.
There's what appears to be a "sloshed" galaxy south of NGC 2385 which I've noted on the annotated image without redshift data. While the core appears located somewhat off center to the east side of the galaxy at first glance a closer look shows a faint arm making a complete, very faint loop to the northeast. If this is included the core is off-center to the west, exactly the opposite of my first impression. I needed more time to bring out this feature.
On the east side of the image is another galaxy that at first blush appears "sloshed" but in this case, the bright core is really a field star in our galaxy and the real galaxy core is where it belongs in the center of the galaxy. Though its two arms are very unsymmetrical with the eastern one drawn out giving the galaxy a somewhat oval appearance.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10' STL-11000XM, Paramount ME Related Designations for FGC0633UGC 03879, KUG 0726+337, CGCG 177-025, CGCG 0726.5+3347, MCG +06-17-012, FGC 0633, RFGC 1220, LCSB S1039O, 2MASX J07294395+3341242, 2MASXi J0729439+334124, 2MASS J07294398+3341238, GALEXASC J072943.91+334124.5 , GALEXMSC J072943.99+334124.4 , IRAS F07264+3347, NSA 134529, PGC 021136, UZC J072944.0+334124, NVSS J072945+334129, NGC 2388E, NGC 2389, UGC 03872, KUG 0725+339, CGCG 177-024, CGCG 0725.8+3357, MCG +06-17-011, 2MASX J07290464+3351395, 2MASXi J0729046+335138, 2MASS J07290459+3351361, 2MASS J07290465+3351394, GALEXASC J072904.48+335140.0 , GALEXMSC J072904.38+335139.0 , IRAS F07258+3357, AKARI J0729048+335133, WBL 142-003, LDCE 0504 NED007, HDCE 0444 NED004, NSA 134524, PGC 021109, SSTSL2 J072904.62+335138.2, UZC J072904.7+335139, NVSS J072904+335137, [WZX98] 07256+3355B, [VFK2015] J112.26954+33.86027 , NGC 2388, NGC 2388W, UGC 03870, CGCG 177-022, CGCG 0725.6+3355, MCG +06-17-010, FBQS J072853.4+334908, 2MASX J07285341+3349084, 2MASXi J0728534+334908, 2MASS J07285345+3349085, GALEXASC J072853.50+334907.5 , GALEXMSC J072853.42+334907.0 , IRAS 07256+3355, IRAS F07256+3355, AKARI J0728533+334905, WBL 142-002, LDCE 0504 NED006, HDCE 0444 NED003, NSA 134523, PGC 021099, SSTSL2 J072853.44+334908.5, UZC J072853.5+334908, [WB92] 0725+3355, NVSS J072853+334908, GB6 J0728+3349, [WZX98] 07256+3355A, [DJ2011] 07, NGC 2385, CGCG 177-020, CGCG 0725.2+3356, MCG +06-17-008, 2MASX J07282802+3350159, 2MASXi J0728281+335015, 2MASS J07282789+3350134, 2MASS J07282789+3350149, 2MASS J07282814+3350167, GALEXASC J072828.34+335016.6 , GALEXMSC J072828.18+335015.5 , WBL 142-001, LDCE 0504 NED005, HDCE 0444 NED002, AGC 170193, NSA 134517, PGC 021080, UZC J072828.2+335016, [WZX98] 07256+3355C, FGC0633, FGC0633, NGC2389, NGC2388, NGC2385, | FGC0633L4X10RGB2X10.JPG
FGC0633L4X10RGB2X10CROP125.JPG
FGC0633L4X10RGB2X10ID.JPG
| It's a bonus when I can get two strange objects in one field. This possibility is why I invested in as large of a chip as was available at the time I bought my camera. This field comes from western Ursa Major between the bear's chin and front paws. It consists of two unsymmetrical spiral galaxies, one an edge on flat galaxy the other a face on galaxy that may be flat but you can't tell seeing it face on. The flat galaxy is FGC 818 at 110 million light-years by redshift and 180 million by Tully-Fisher. Its core is well southeast of center. About the center is an object NED calls SHOC 231 and lists as "Part of Galaxy" indicating its part of FGC 818 but its redshift is 128% as great leaving me confused. I've drawn lines to the location NED gives for each object.
NGC 2701 to the north has the same 110 million light-year redshift as FGC 818 indicating they are likely part of the same group. Its core is well off center but otherwise, shows no hint of interaction with another galaxy. Still, something likely caused this in the distant past. Its core is small with a weak bar. This suggests a small central bulge that could qualify it to be a flat galaxy if we could see it from the side. Then it might look rather like FGC 818. It too has a knot listed at NED as being "Part of Galaxy". In this case, it's redshift matches. It appears to be a large star cloud in an arm of the galaxy. Several smaller ones are seen in my image as well. A rather bright star on its western edge made this one a bit difficult to process. The dark area below the star may appear to be a processing artifact but is in the raw FITS files and real. This one could fit Arp's one-armed spiral category.
Even more interesting may be the apparently interacting galaxies due east of NGC 2701, ASK 052183.0 and SDSS J090022.24+534619.3. I've attached a Sloan Survey image of this object. NED identifies 4 distinct objects here. I've pointed them out in the Sloan image as my resolution isn't sufficient.
There was an aurora going on when I took this image. It was weak but added green and red gradients to the image and greatly brightened the background to about 3 times normal. This limits how deep the image goes and gave difficulties with colorful gradients I had to deal with. Thanks to both the signal to noise ratio is lower than I'd like. But it was a night of better than average seeing so I put up with the aurora. Adding insult to injury it wasn't pretty, just a green and red cast to the sky that was brightest in Ursa Major of course.
14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME Related Designations for FGC0818UGC 04696, CGCG 264-044, CGCG 0855.4+5349, MCG +09-15-064, FGC 0818, RFGC 1463, 2MFGC 07015, 2MASX J08590782+5337573, 2MASS J08590783+5337567, SDSS J085907.81+533756.5, SDSS J085907.82+533756.5, ASK 051881.0, NSA 010627, PGC 025235, NGC 2701, UGC 04695, CGCG 264-043, CGCG 0855.3+5357, MCG +09-15-063, 2MASX J08590572+5346183, 2MASS J08590575+5346179, SDSS J085905.74+534618.0, IRAS 08554+5357, IRAS F08554+5357, SIT 0022-1, NSA 135591, PGC 025237, UZC J085905.4+534614, [PVK2003] J134.77625+53.76944 , FGC0818, NGC2701, | FGC0818L4X10RGB2X10CROP125.JPG
FGC0818L4X10RGB2X10R.JPG
FGC0818L4X10RGB2X10RID.JPG
sdssODD_PAIR.jpg
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