NGC1417

This field is located in northern Eridanus. It consists of 3 NGC galaxies and one IC galaxy. Various sources group them differently. Some consider the two center ones as a pair, others include either the far eastern or western one to make a triple and yet others say this is all part of one small group that includes members outside my field. All agree there's no interaction between any of them. By redshift, the two center ones, NGC 1417 and NGC 1418 are related while the two outside ones, IC 344 and NGC 1424, are related. If your use Tully-Fisher distance measurements then NGC 1417 doesn't belong to the other three. To my eye, I have better resolution of NGC 1417 than the other three indicating it is closer. Thus I'm leaning that way though none of the sources I looked at group them that way. But what do I know?

IC 344 is listed as a SAB(rs)b: galaxy by NED and as SBbc? by Seligman. It was discovered by John Herschel on October 17, 1827.

NGC 1417 is a SAB(rs)b) in all sources I checked. It was discovered by William Herschel on October 5, 1785 but is neither of the Herschel observing lists.

NGC 1418 is listed as SB(s)b? by all sources (some use the colon to indicate uncertainty rather than the question mark). It was discovered by William Herschel the same night as NGC 1417 and isn't in either Herschel observing list.

NGC 1424 is shown as an SAB(rs)b: galaxy in NED and SAB(rs)b? pec by Seligman and others. It was discovered by Bindon Stoney on December 8, 1850 after being missed by the Herschels. Bindon Blood Stoney was an assistant to the Earl of Rosse and made many of the discoveries often attributed to the Earl.

The only other object in the field is a rather distant galaxy known only by its 1950 or 2000 coordinates depending on which catalog you use. Normally I don't list this except with the label of "G" for galaxy but since there's nothing else with redshift data in the field I had room to include the full name.

Due to conditions, I was able to get only one green image. This didn't hurt the color balance to any significant extent. I never tried to get the missing frame since there was no satellite trail in the frame I did capture. The ability to easily remove satellite trails is the main reason I use 2 for each color as one is almost always sufficient.

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

Related Designations for NGC1417

NGC1421

NGC 1421 is a strange near edge on galaxy in northern Eridanus about 90 million light-years distant by redshift and 83 by Tully-Fisher measurement. It has high surface brightness distorted arms in an otherwise low surface brightness disk. It's been on my to-do list for years but being so far south (-13.5 degrees) seeing never was up to the task until this October night. NED classifies it as SAB(rs)bc: with HII. Its redshift moves the H alpha emission well out of my passband and I was unable to pick it up this low with RGB filters. The NGC Project classifies it as Sb+ I: while Seligman agrees with NED. But he mentions that de Vaucouleurs uses it as an example of an SB(s)c galaxy. No two papers I looked at seemed to agree on its classification. One admitted, "Classification is difficult." Yet another said it was simply Sc (no bar).

I measure the distance from the core to the southern edge of the galaxy at 131" while the north segment is only 95". This makes for a rather lopsided galaxy. Though this is partly offset by the odd third arm that curves outside the normal oval to the northwest. There seems to be some debate on the nature of this odd blob. NED considers it part of the galaxy but one note at NED has this comment: "Its dwarf companion S2 could easily be mistaken for a background galaxy, except for its two HSB nuclear H II regions." It appears to be talking of this blob as it does contain two High surface brightness regions and I find nothing else the comment could be about. Still, I think its part of the galaxy. By my measurement, NGC 1421 is almost 100,000 light-years in size.

The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on February 1, 1785. It is in the second Herschel 400 observation program run by the Astronomical League.

While NED lists over 150 galaxies in the image none but NGC 1421 have redshift data. With nothing worth annotating no annotated image was prepared. For some unknown reason when I centered the galaxy I had a bad ghost reflection. I had to move it off-center to get rid of it. Nothing bright is in the area so I'm puzzled by the source of the reflection.

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

Related Designations for NGC1421

NGC1507

NGC 1507 made my list as a Herschel 400 II observing program galaxy, one I've not looked at visually. If it hadn't have been about -30°C I'd have run out and popped in an eyepiece (I can do that without removing the camera) and taken a look but when the camera reports it is running cooling at 3% and the set temperature is -35° That discourages me from leaving the comfort of sitting in my easy chair soaking up IR from the roaring fireplace.

It is a rather nearby galaxy being only about 35 million light-years distant in northern Eridanus. NED classifies it as SB(s)m pec? with HII while I found papers agreeing to this and others disagreeing saying it was Sm/Irr (no bar and others saying Sd (again no bar). Seen about 80 degrees from face on I won't hazard a guess. It looks rather disorganized to my eye though is slightly redder in the core like a spiral. I measure its size as about 37,500 light-years in diameter.

This area is poorly studied. Only this galaxy has redshift data so I wasn't going to do an annotated image but then I found NED lists three galaxies at about its position rather than one. Besides NGC 1507 it also points to a small faint spot above a larger spot in the northern part of the galaxy saying it is LEDA 093084 at 32 million light-years. It is also listed in the 2 micron flat galaxy catalog as 2MFGC 03330 at 38 million light-years. That position points to a small star-like point in the galaxy just below and right a field star. Both are likely star clouds in the galaxy and the redshift difference may be due to rotation of the galaxy with the lower part rotating away from us and the upper rotating toward us. Surprisingly the Tully-Fisher distance for it agrees very closely to its redshift value. For galaxies, this close redshift can be highly misleading. Apparently not in this case.

With no asteroids or other galaxies with redshift data in the field, it is a rather dull area. Seeing was poor this night. But with only a couple usable short nights I had to grab what I could or get nothing in January.

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

Related Designations for NGC1507

NGC1528

NGC 1528 is an often imaged open cluster in northeastern Perseus. It is classified as Trumpler II2m. So I'm breaking with my tradition of imaging rarely seen objects. I happened to notice it has been on my to-do list from the very beginning but somehow never was selected, probably because I gave it a very low priority because everyone images it. It finally got selected mid-November.

WEBDA puts it at about 2500 light-years distant so relatively nearby. Many sources say 2531 as if such precision was possible. I suspect rounding to the nearest 100 light-years is still beyond our ability to pin its distance down that accurately. Astronomy Magazine's article on it puts it at only 1530 light-years for instance. WEBDA puts its age at 370 million years. Again likely too specific but at least it is a rather young cluster. They put its reddening at a meager 0.26 magnitudes. Its young age and lack of significant reddening likely explain its strong blue color.

The cluster was discovered by William Herschel on December 28, 1790. Being a big and bright cluster it is in the original Herschel 400 observing program. My notes from September 10, 1985 on a humid night reducing transparency with my 10" f/5 at 60x reads: "Very large, bright cluster. Easily seen in finder and grand in the telescope. Cluster fades into the background stars making its true size difficult for me to determine."

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

Related Designations for NGC1528

NGC1530

Normally I can't image above 70 degrees north due to my Polaris tree. It's width and height make that impossible. On the west side of the meridian, I'm blocked down to 65 degrees in fact. So it takes some planning to catch objects near that 70 degree limit. But one day I noticed a hole in the tree that I could image through. A bit of calculation showed I could catch a 75 degree north object for 20 minutes in that hole if I imaged 7 hours before upper culmination (when it was highest in the sky on the meridian). There was one very odd galaxy I'd wanted to image but couldn't because of its 75 degree declination. A quick calculation when I found the hole a couple months ago, showed the galaxy would soon be in that hole while it was dark. But it would take 5 nights to capture enough data if I used the full 20 minutes. Most nights, due to the time it took to set up once it moved into the hole and could be seen and focus obtained I could only get one 10 minute frame. Some nights I pushed too far and it moved out of the hole. The diffraction effects of pine needles does odd things to stars and really colors the glare halo of bright ones. Guess it was these very odd star shapes and color fringes that caused me to forget it. But the galaxy, NGC 1530 is really interesting. It should remind you of NGC 3718. But while the two seem about the same size NGC 1530 is twice as far away at a bit over 100 million light years so is a much larger galaxy. But it doesn't have a companion nor does it have a Hickson galaxy group in the field. NGC 3718 is an Arp galaxy while this, to me, more interesting one, isn't on his list. It appears to be a tiny spiral galaxy within a much larger, highly distorted, barred galaxy. The two dust lanes of the bar hit the spiral and literally spiral into the core. Papers I've read indicate matter is flowing into the core down these two dark lanes and feeding star formation in the mini spiral part of the galaxy.

Edit: The galaxy was discovered by Wilhelm Temple in 1876. It is located in Camelopardalis. I measure its size at a bit over 150 million light-years. It is classified as SB(rs)b though that is not accepted by all sources. The long drawn out arms are interesting. Sometimes this is due to interaction with another galaxy. If so which one? I found no answer to these questions.

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

Related Designations for NGC1530

NGC1560

NGC 1560 is a spiral galaxy above my 70 north limit due to my Polaris Tree. But only by a degree so it's only in the very edges of the tree for much of its circle around the pole. By taking 5 hours of data with it east of the pole I was able to find 3 L images, 2 red, 2 green and 3 blue that weren't too bothered by pine needles. They still made for some interesting halos around bright stars and color prism effects to those halos. I've removed these the best I can. The picture looks noisy but I think it real and due to the IFN. It is located in a part of the sky known to have IFN but I didn't expect only 30 minutes of data to bring it out like this. It just barely shows in the DSS plates and then only if you really stretch the heck out of them but the brightest parts match my image so not all the fuzz is due to pine needles.

NGC 1560 is a Maffei Galaxy in that is it is a member of this heavily obscured, but very nearby, group of galaxies that includes Maffei 1 and 2 as well as IC 342 and Arp 210 as well as some other dwarf galaxies like UGCA 86, 92, 105 and UGC 2773, Cam A, B, and D and a few others some found by radio telescopes like Dwingeloo 1 and 2. Most are below my 70 degree limit so are on my to-do list but I don't know when I'll get to those not yet imaged.

NGC 1560 is classed as an SA(s)d spiral. It is located in the constellation of Camelopardalis (a giraffe not a camel) I have seen several distance estimates ranging from 7.5 to 16 million light-years. This close redshift is worthless. In fact, it has a blue shift meaning it is approaching us. Most sources seem to average out at about 10 million light years. The problem is how to take into account the dimming due to looking through all the dust and gas of our galaxy. Different estimates of this dimming give different distances.

Edit: Some sources list it as IC 2062 as well. This is incorrect. IC 2062 is just the nearest rather bright blue star in my image right and a bit up from the core of the galaxy. I measure it at being a quarter degree long which would make it about 43,600 light-years in size. I see hints that it goes much further but due to my limited exposure time due to the Polaris Tree it may just be noise or IFN. Another for the unlikely to happen retake list. The galaxy was discovered by Wilhelm Tempel on August 1, 1883. Guillaume Bigourdan is responsible for thinking the star, IC 2062, was a nebulous object on December 23, 1891.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=3x10', RG=2x10'x3, B=3x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC1560

NGC1579

NGC 1579 is sometimes called the Northern Trifid though I never liked that name. It is part of a much larger molecular cloud about 2100 light years distant. Most of the cloud is dark and can only be seen by the absence of stars in much of the image. But where there are super hot ultraviolet stars it shines as an emission nebula. Where there are stars nearby that are bright but don't have sufficient ultraviolet light it shows up as a blue or dusky reflection nebula. Even the emission nebula seems to have a lot of reflected light in it as instead of the normal pink of ionized hydrogen it is more orange in color. This is a standard exposure for me of 6 five minute luminosity frames and 3 five minute frames in each color. The yellow stars are a very weird color normally no seen in astrophotos. I thought the orange of the nebula and yellow of these stars was a glitch in my processing but checking Kitt Peak's photo and others it appears correct. I assume the yellow is due to their light shining through the cloud and being stripped of blue light by scattering from the dust and gas molecules. A very deep photo, many hours long rather than only 30 minutes can be seen at http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060525.html . It too has the same coloration I show.

Edit: This was a very early image when I was doing everything wrong. I used incorrect techniques for both taking and processing the image. Another for the redo list that may not happen as this is a very commonly imaged object and certainly my best efforts would add little to those already taken. This one was discovered by William Herschel on December 27, 1788. It is in the second H400 observing program.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=6x5' RGB=3x5'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC1579

NGC1637

NGC 1637 is a rather nearby somewhat "sloshed" galaxy in northeastern Eridanus. "Sloshed in the sense of asymmetric much as a raw egg becomes sloshed back and forth in a frying pan with the yoke off center. I've seen it called a three arm galaxy though to me it has only two arms that come off a bar. The north one short going 180 degrees and not expanding all that far from the core though it ends in an odd straight segment. The other however makes a huge 360 degree arc passing over the much smaller northern arm. Much of this arm is rather red in color indicating its stars are rather old. How such an old arm without new star formation to keep the density wave going that forms the arm can exist for so long is a puzzle but one many red spirals have that are even older than this galaxy.

Redshift puts the galaxy at 31 million light-years. Pretty close by my standards. Redshift at such a close distance can be very misleading. NED lists 21 non-redshift measurements for it that have a median value of 32 million light-years. Very close to the redshift value. Also, large telescopes can resolve its brighter stars indicating the distance is likely correct. The bright region of the galaxy is about 24,000 light-years in diameter assuming the 31 million light-year distance. Including the faint halo more than doubles its size to 55,000 light-years.

NGC 1637 was discovered by William Herschel on February 1, 1876 with an 18.7" reflector. It is one of the second Herschel 400 objects so made my list for both being unusual and being on that listing of the second 400 in that AL observing program.

Seen faintly, the galaxy has a huge halo around it that is quite blue and thus contains mostly very new stars. Most images of this galaxy fail to pick up this as it requires a lot of exposure time, a lot more than I gave it. I saw a hint of it when I started to process the image but wasn't going to try and bring it out as it would be very noisy. Then I remembered an article in the March 2014 issue of Astronomy Magazine (the American magazine not the English magazine of the same name) by Adam Block explaining a Photoshop technique I'd not seen before for bringing up such plumes without increasing noise significantly. It is very quick and easy to apply. Nice to add a new trick to my bag of processing tricks.

This is yet another field in an area little studied for its galaxies. While there are a lot of background galaxies only 3 had any distance data so the annotated image is rather sparse.

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

Related Designations for NGC1637

NGC1721

VV699 is a triple galaxy system in Eridanus about 170 to 200 million light-years distant. The three are NGC 1721, NGC 1725 and NGC 1728. Their redshifts put them at a distance of 205, 178 and 171 million light-years. Since they appear to be possibly interacting these differences may just reflect their relative motion more than a true distance difference. I find no other distance estimates for them.

NGC 1721 appears the most disturbed. NED classes it (R')SAB(s)0^0^ pec while the NGC Project says more simply S0. I can't fathom that one. The inner core does have some elements of an SO but you have to ignore the huge outer spiral arms or is it arm. I see an arm coming from the NW ansa of the inner disk but the other end is too obscured by NGC 1725 to see what is going on there. I suppose it is possible the eastern arm is just a continuation of the western one though I doubt that.

NGC 1725 is classed S0 by NED and E-S0 by the NGC project. These both seem reasonable to me. It doesn't seem disturbed. So is it really interacting with the others? There are no papers on this trio that address this issue. They are just catalog listings or physical descriptions. Ellipticals are dense so can cause interaction without showing much distortion themselves. That may be the case here.

NGC 1728 is classed as Sa pec with spectral emission lines by NED and simply as Sa by the NGC project. The disk is warped so I can understand the peculiar label NED gives it. The warped disk indicates interaction with some galaxy. Is it both the other two or just NGC 1721? Again nothing addressing this turned up in my search.

I imaged this field twice. First time NGC 1723 at the top was just out of frame with its faint large arm just in the edge of the field looking just like a halo from a bright star. It wasn't until I went to process the image that I looked at that area on the POSS plates and found it was the edge of a galaxy. Back to the telescope a year later to retake it with this neat spiral in the field. I never did process the first attempt.

NGC 1723 is classed as SB(r)a pec by NED and SB by the NGC Project. The two arms that come off the very strong bar nearly touch to make a complete ring hence the (r) designation at NED. Add in the huge distorted arm outer arm structure and it well deserves its Pec label. With a redshift virtually the same as that of NGC 1728 and nearly that of NGC 1725 it very likely interacted with the VV699 trio sometime in the past. Is it the cause of NGC 1721's outer ring-like arms?

The VV catalog calls the trio isolated. But if you check my annotated image or keep reading you'll find that isn't the case. The few other galaxies for which NED has redshift data are also in this distance range.

2MFGC 04079 to the west of NGC 1721 is at 200 million light-years about the same as NGC 1721. NED has no classification for it. 2MFGC 04080 to the southwest is in the 2 micron flat galaxy catalog though it doesn't look all that flat to me. It is the third galaxy in the field to sport a redshift of 171 million light-years. In red light and IR light, it does look far flatter than in blue light so that may be the way it got into that catalog. NED doesn't classify it but does say it is 0.4 by 0.3 minutes in size, hardly flat. But their red light POSS I image shows it very flat. Odd.

The only other galaxy in the field with redshift data is the edge on spiral MCG -02-13-031 at 168 million light-years. Again a member of this rapidly expanding group. NED classes it as SB(s)c? indicating the arm structure is very hard to determine with such an edge on view. Its disk seems slightly warped as well. NED says it has some HII emission lines in its spectra. This would indicate it contains regions of active star formation.

Sharp eyed observers might notice a linear feature in the northwestern part of NGC 1721's outer arm or plume. It looks much like a short asteroid trail. But it is just a distant, anonymous, flat, edge on, galaxy seen through the thin stars of the galaxy.

14" LX200R @ F/10, L=4X10 RGB=2X10X3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC1721

NGC1788

NGC 1788 is an Orion Nebula, not THE Orion Nebula but it certainly is a nebula in Orion. We normally think of emission nebula when mention is made of Orion but it has many reflection nebulae as well, including M78 and McNeil's Nebula. This one is less well known, however. It has a dark nebula running through it, LDN 1616. It is likely part of NGC 1788 rather than something separate well in front of it. The nebula appears to be part of the same huge molecular cloud that is responsible for THE Orion Nebula, M42-43. At least its distance is about the same at 1300 light years. Normally only the bright central part is thought of as being the nebula but as you can see it really is far larger, far larger than my field of view.

There are two asteroids in the image, in the upper left corner is (54443) 2000 MT5 at magnitude 18.3. It is moving mostly up in the image. There is a break in the trail as I had clouds dim the mid portion of the luminosity exposures. The other asteroid is hard to find. It is above the nebula, left and up from the very bright star above and a bit right of the nebula. It appears nearly star-like as it moved only 3.5" of arc during the luminosity exposures. You will see hints of the RGB exposures to its left. Those are the best way to tell it from a star. It was moving down and to the right during the exposure. I took the color frames first so they trail the main asteroid image. It is (129774) 1999 JM5 and is also magnitude 18.3 but appears far brighter because nearly all of its light fell on the same part of the sensor so the image built up rather than being spread out as for most asteroids. No, it didn't stop orbiting the sun and thus is about to fall in on us. This lack of motion is an illusion as we are moving the same direction as it is at about the same speed. We are also moving away from it at high speed but that motion can't be detected on a two dimension image.

I've seen this nebula called the "Fox Face Nebula". I'm afraid I don't see the resemblance. Maybe the face of some beast who just ate something that tasted awful and thus now has a very contorted grimace on its face. Or maybe its a gargoyle. It was discovered by William Herschel on February 1, 1786. It is in the original H400 program. My entry on March 16, 1985 with my 10" f/5 at 195x on a good night reads. "Looks like the drawing except for the stars in it. The dimmer one in the drawing isn't there. Instead, there is a 13th+ magnitude star at the far east end where he drew a condensation. Has that faded that he drew -- variable star? Or was the seeing so bad the star appeared double at the time he drew the nebula?" While I see a double star in the center of the nebula the brighter is 14.6 so likely not visible when the drawing was made. Actually, there is a star in the condensation that is about 12th magnitude in my FITs file. I'm not sure what I was seeing when I wrote this.

The blue "spear" of light coming in from the top left of center is just a blue star that hit the edge of my imaging sensor. These are very hard to avoid with so many stars in our galaxy. It seems one will fall on the edge of the sensor much of the time creating such a light spear. They aren't seen until I'm processing the image so I don't know they are there when composing the image. I find them only days or even months later when I finally get time to process the image."

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

Related Designations for NGC1788