NGC3434

NGC 3434 is a face on spiral with a very unusual arm structure though at first glance it might not appear that odd. It is classed as Sa(r)b with HII emission by NED. It has no arms coming off the core as a classic spiral would. Instead, the core is surrounded by an oval (almost American football shaped) blue ring. Such a shape usually is caused by a bar but there is no bar. Then coming from the southeast side of the ring is a single spiral arm that circles 1.5 times around the galaxy. Or maybe that arm goes only half way and a new arm coming from the northeast part of the oval ring makes a complete circle with the first arm overlapping the second. The only paper I found considers it a single arm, I'm not quite sure I agree. In any case, it is a strange galaxy once you start to look at it. There are also star clouds in the ring(s) and one between them. The galaxy is about 180 million light-years distant by redshift and is located in the constellation of Leo but the right (30%) side of the image is in Sextans as it is right on the border. It was discovered on January 27, 1786 by William Herschel but isn't in either of the Herschel 400 observing programs.

It has a couple of companions with similar redshift. CGCG 038-37 is a very diffuse spiral to the north. North of that and a bit east is a double galaxy. At least it has two different entries in NED with two slightly different positions and very slightly different redshifts. Visually in my image, it seems to consist of an elongated galaxy and a blue round highly condensed galaxy in the northwestern part. NED, however, shows both as having a 1:4 width to length ratio. Neither has the dimensions of the small spherical galaxy. NED also shows a third object, an Ultraviolet Source with a position between the positions of the two elongated galaxies but with an error circle that doesn't quite reach the blue compact object. Looking at the SLOAN image of this galaxy it does appear it could be two overlapping elongated galaxies. That still leaves the question of the compact blue object. Is it just a huge star cloud in the galaxy? Is this one, two or three galaxies? Wish I knew. I've included the Sloan image.

Other than this oddball object the rest of the annotated image is rather normal though distances to some object are determined by the Friend of a Friend method which assumes they are related to others in the group. That's noted by "FoF" after the distance. Same as photographic redshift noted by a "p" the accuracy of such distances is less reliable than spectroscopic redshift (no label).

This image might seem to have less background than usual. That's because the filter wheel broke during the image. I didn't catch it until the next night and didn't realize it had hit this image. There's a rubber friction band that a capstan drives to turn the wheel. That broke. I'd already taken green and red data lower in the sky then took blue. That all worked but then after the meridian flip to catch the Luminance channel the band broke so the "luminance frames were actually blue frames. I didn't notice this had happened until I went to process the image many months later. In fact, I didn't notice until I was working on the annotated image and noted I'd lost a good magnitude yet conditions were noted as average in my log. Then I looked closely and found the reason the dust mots didn't seem to flat out right for the luminance channel was they were really blue filter dust mots. I'd used the wrong flat. The software just assumed the filter wheel had worked and labeled it as luminance when that wasn't the case. So I'd spent time cloning out those dust mots that were bright and filling in the dark ones with false background when all I needed have done was use the right flat. The combination of all the light loss in the color filters and the fact that most distant galaxies I pick up are reddened by intergalactic dust resulted in the noisier image than normal and loss of a full magnitude. Since this is a really interesting galaxy and field it is back on the reshoot list for next year. At least the galaxy itself is blue so using blue data didn't hurt it as much as it could have. Still, If I'd known this before processing it I'd have used all color frames as well as the "luminance/blue" frames to make a pseudo luminance image which would have better represented the field. I was nearly done with the annotation when I realized what had happened.

The next night I found the wheel was stuck between two filters and wouldn't turn. That lead to the discovery of the broken ring. I tack glued it into the groove and the filter wheel turned just fine positioning correctly. I then called SBIG for a new belt. They said they'd send two. Why two when the first lasted 10 years I don't know but then they never arrived. Seems they all left for NEAF and the belts never got sent. The tack glue job didn't hold long and the belt developed some gaps as it was so rotten it was falling apart. A rubber band would fill in and work for one image but had to be replaced each new image. I finally found one that hung in fairly well. After the SBIG crew returned from NEAF they found my many emails and phone messages and actually sent the belts. No charge even though the camera was 9 years out of warranty.

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

Related Designations for NGC3434

NGC3447

This one reminds me of some floating in space alien with a Men in Black style huge ray gun it's firing at something apparently off-screen. Or maybe I need a long rest.

NGC 3447 is a pair of interacting galaxies in Leo about 65 to 66 million light-years away. NED classes the larger western galaxy as SAB(s)m pec and the smaller eastern galaxy as IB(s)m pec. A Tully-Fisher measurement of them says 65.5 million light-years so there's unusually close agreement. The eastern member is odd in that the western end is full of bright knots of star formation while the eastern end is very diffuse with no visible structure at all. A golden object is seen at the NE edge of the western galaxy. NED shows it as an IR source in the 2MASS catalog and as an HII source in the Hodge+Kennicutt HII regions catalog. While an HII region can harbor new stars and give off a lot of IR the whole thing looks like a distant galaxy to me rather than an object in NGC 3447a. This mess was discovered by John Herschel on March 18, 1836.

SDSS J105329.58+164359.6 the small blue smudge under NGC 3447 at a redshift indicated distance of 63 MLY seems to be a separate dwarf galaxy. NED shows no classification for it. The three form an interesting triple system that has been little studied that I could find.

Near the right edge of my image on the center-line of the image is SDSS J105215.04+164446.4, an IR strong galaxy seen edge on. The southern arm is very finely defined. The northern one seems mostly missing! At 2.3 billion light-years it is tough to see much detail. Still to have a south going arm that size means it is a very large galaxy. The half a galaxy in my image measures 15.6" of arc which at 2.3 billion light-years is 175,000 light-years. That's for its radius or 350,000 for the diameter if the other half is still there. It is faintly seen but very poorly defined. Why the difference?

WHL J105303.8+165221 is a galaxy cluster at 3.1 billion light years but the Big Cluster Galaxy (BCG) at its heart is listed at 2.8 billion light-years. A surprisingly large difference.

ABELL 1126:[QR95] E and ABELL 1126:[QR95] W are listed as two galaxies in the Abell 1126 galaxy cluster with the same exact position but slightly different redshift. I've listed it as G 1.1/1.2 for this reason. To add to the confusion the position of these two? galaxies are almost but not quite the same as the core of the galaxy they seem to pertain to. NED gives the core the designation 2MASX J10535025+1651022/PGC 32713 at 1.1 million light-years which is listed as a spiral oddly enough and as the cD galaxy for the Abell 1226 group. It certainly looks like an elliptical galaxy to me. All this confusion about the cD galaxy for an Abell galaxy cluster seems odd to me. To its southeast is SDSS J105400.83+164843.2, a real spiral that is closer to the core of Abell 1126. Could these two entries be somewhat mixed-up? That galaxy is not categorized by NED at all, odd given its size, brightness and obvious spiral nature.

The Abell 1126 cluster is listed as being 30 minutes in diameter, of richness class 1 (50-79 galaxies) and at a distance of 1.1 billion light-years. The nearby galaxy cluster NSCS J105344+165124 may be part of this cluster. it is said to contain 22 members in an unknown area. It too is at 1.1 billion light-years. Another apparent piece of the Abell cluster is WHL J105415.1+165134. All I see at its position is a rather large and bright (magnitude 17.6) galaxy. It is only labeled with the G/GC label. NED lists it as having 15 members in an undefined area.

GMBCG J163.19257+16.60930 is a galaxy cluster in the lower right part of my image. It is listed with 65 members but with no size. It's position is within 1" of the BCG for the cluster. The BCG's spectral redshift puts it at 4.2 billion light-years. The photographic redshift for the cluster says 4.1 billion light-years. To its southwest is another galaxy cluster, NSCS J105243+163554. Nothing is seen at its center. It is said to contain 27 galaxies at 4.4 billion light-years. No size is given. WHL J105238.1+163600 is likely another name for this cluster though with yet a different center and core galaxy though the two vary by about 1" of arc. It too is 4.4 billion light-years and consists of 47 members in an undefined area. So are all three really one cluster? In any case, there's a lot of faint fuzzies in a band through the lower right part of my image.

South of these clusters is GMBCG J163.18556+16.56924. The BCG's redshift is from its spectrum while the cluster's redshift has been photographically determined. This leads to slightly different distances both about 4.7 billion light-years. The cluster is said to contain 17 members and again no size is given.

ZwCl 1051.4+1656 is a galaxy cluster centered south of Abell 1126 but includes it as its diameter is listed at 67 minutes and containing 345 members. No distance is listed. The label is centered on its central position though I see very little at that location.

SDSS J105237.45+164109.0 may be the most distant and faintest object I've picked up in only a 40 minute exposure. NED lists its green magnitude as 24.8 with a redshift of z=4.815960. That, by their 5 year WMAP calculator, puts it at 12.5 billion light-years light travel time. Looking at it on the Sloan images it is actually very red though nothing came through on the color filters at this position, just too much light loss in the filters. This color is not unexpected since the wavelengths of its light are 5.8 times longer than when they left the quasar 12.5 billion years ago. My chip is rather insensitive to red but likely that is what made it visible in my image. You might need to enlarge the image by a factor of 3 or 4 to see the faint smudge but it is there and the center pixel is precisely at the correct position. It is seen in all 4 sub-exposures as well. It is west-southwest of NGC 3447 to the right of a very bright blue star and is labeled Q 12.5.

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

Related Designations for NGC3447

NGC3454

NGC 3454 and NGC 3455 are a pair of galaxies in central Leo. Redshift puts them at 66 million light-years distant. Tully Fisher determinations disagree and put them a bit under 100 million light-years away. I think, in this case, the redshift measurements are likely more reasonable. Assuming the redshift distance NGC 3454 and NGC 3455 are both about 52.5 thousand light years across. If the 100 million light-year figure is used then they are about 80 thousand light-years in size. NGC 3454 was found by John Herschel on March 17, 1831. NGC 3455 was found by William Herschel on March 21, 1784.

One note at NED says: "Bright spindle with plume (NGC 3454), disturbed? by UGC 06028 (NGC 3455)..." while another reads: "Bright bar with knots and dark markings. Faint, smooth, outer arms. Edge-on. Non-interacting pair with NGC 3455 at 3.8 arcmin." So are they or are they not interacting? I found no notes on 3455 referencing the apparently distorted outer arms, especially the western one. About all I can see for a plume in 3454 is the southeastern ansa seems puffier than the northwestern one and seems to be off centerline toward 3455. I'd surmise these features aren't unrelated and some interaction has occurred.

I put these off center to pick up NGC 3443 in the upper right corner. Its redshift is insignificantly different from the other two (I found no non-redshift measurements of its distance) so it is likely a member of the same group. Assuming the same distance it is 50,000 light-years in diameter or 76,000 at the 100,000 light-year distance. It is a rather low surface brightness spiral compared to the first two. It was discovered by Lewis Swift on April 24, 1887.

Also, a likely member of the group is ASK 617911.0 on the left edge of the image. Its redshift is similar. It seems to be quite blue with two odd star clouds NE and SW of the core though the SW one is below the major axis of the galaxy. The other small object just above the SW cloud is most likely a nearby star in our galaxy and not a feature of this dwarf galaxy. It is only about 11,000 light-years in diameter at its redshift distance. There's yet a fifth likely member of this group but my framing missed it. It is about one minute of arc above the upper left corner of my image. It is NGC 3457?/NGC 3460. There's some debate over this object's identity. See the NGC Project entries for these two if interested.

North of the center of the image is an oddly distorted spiral galaxy that's small in angular size but rather bright in its core though the outer arms are very faint. NED's only identification of it is SDSS J105353.23+173041.6. Since it didn't have a redshift distance it wasn't labeled in the annotated image.

Due to lousy weather, this one was taken over two consecutive nights. The first night was clouded out after 4 luminance frames. The second night I started again to take the color data but discovered I was taking more luminance instead. I stopped the run and restarted it for color data. By then it was too late to get a complete new object so I decided to take 4 more luminance frames with the time remaining not trusting those I'd gotten the first night. At the time I didn't realize there was a very bright asteroid in the field. Turns out I picked it up both nights. Due to the gap between the first and second luminance frame, it made three trails in the top of the image. The asteroid, discovered by the German astronomer Joseph Helffrich in 1910 and apparently named after the far more famous Italian astronomer Galileo (is Galilea the German spelling of Galileo?) The naming of early asteroids is covered by a copyrighted book so the Minor Planet Center can't give out that information. So this is only a guess on my part. Does anyone have better info?

There's a 20th magnitude asteroid in the image which I show in the annotated version. Since it shows in only 4 (in only the first night's images) of the 9 frames it is nearly invisible in a mean stack of the data though very obvious in the raw data. It barely shows up due to this and the rather poor transparency that first night.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=9x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC3454

NGC3486

NGC 3486 is a multi-fragmented arm spiral in western Leo Minor about 45 million light-years distant. It has a very bright core but faint arms. NED classes it as SAB(r)c and a Seyfert 2 galaxy with HII emission. The NGC Project says simply Sc. Assuming the 45 million light-year distance I measure it at about 93,000 light-years in diameter. The HII regions came through surprisingly well for that distance even though I used no Hydrogen Alpha data to help bring them out (the pink spots). At first glance, it appears to be a grand design spiral but then you realize the arms are just fragments taking it out of that classification which needs complete, well-defined arms.

It was discovered by William Herschel on April 11, 1785. It is in the first H400 program. My log from April 15, 1985 on a fair but humid night with my 10" f/5 at up to 150x reads: "Small, faint, slightly uneven splotch of a galaxy. It seems slightly brighter toward the center. It seems to change shape from circular to 'S" shaped with averted vision." Sounds like I was seeing only the center with direct vision and maybe a hint of the inner arms with averted vision. I never looked at it again, or at least never logged it again so I don't know if the night's humidity was taking a toll on the transparency.

To the upper left of NGC 3486 is the rather odd looking galaxy VV 515. The VV catalog only lists multiple galaxies. In this case three of them. Unfortunately, NED doesn't give the position of the three, just of the group so I can't tell you which parts are considered separate galaxies.

I listed the catalog name of all galaxies with redshift data that had a name other than one that was just its coordinates. The two with question marks beside them weren't in NED even though this field is well covered by the Sloan Survey data. Again, I just happened across them so it is likely others were missed as well. There are several galaxy clusters around bright cluster galaxies. Most used the same photographic data (p) for the distance to both the galaxy and the cluster. When this happened I listed only one distance. In the case where there were two determinations, one of which was spectroscopic and different both are listed with the first being the cluster distance and the second the distance to the anchoring galaxy. Likely the spectroscopically determined redshift is most accurate for both the galaxy and cluster.

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

Related Designations for NGC3486

NGC3501

NGC 3501 attracted my attention as it is a neat flat galaxy being #1187 in the Flat Galaxy Catalog. It is classified as Scd by NED and Seligman but the NGC project says Sc. I suppose this difference is partly due to the difficulties of classifying a galaxy seen edge on. Note the lack of any hint of a central bulge. Since there is an apparent correlation between the size of the central bulge and the size of the black hole in a spiral's core it would appear this galaxy has a very small black hole. Also, I saw a recent article saying galaxies without a central bulge have had few if any mergers. I'm not sure I buy that one. The galaxy is located in Leo and is about 68 million light-years distant by redshift and 78 million light-years by the median of many Tully Fisher measurements. Using the redshift distance I get a size of about 80,000 light-years. The galaxy was discovered on April 23, 1881 by Édouard Stephan. I'm surprised William Herschel missed it.

When I saw I could fit the face on spiral NGC 3507 in the same frame I changed my aim point to include both galaxies. NED classifies it as SB(s)b LINER. Others agree. It certainly is a classic two arm barred spiral. Redshift puts it 61 million light-years distant while two Tully-Fisher measurements say 52 million light-years. Since it is likely these two are related though not interacting I assume they are both about the same distance. Using the redshift distance I get a size of 59,000 light-years. Seen face on it gives the illusion of being larger than NGC 3501 which is not true. This galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on March 14, 1784 which makes it all the more surprising he missed NGC 3501. This galaxy is in the second Herschel 400 observing program. The annotated image points out what is likely a star cloud in the galaxy. It is quite blue so likely full of massive, hot, young stars. It is listed only as Part of a Galaxy by NED.

Near the lower right corner near the right edge is ASK 619400.0. In my poorly resolved image (seeing was poor this night) it seems to have two blue blobs at the top and a red one to the south. Indeed, the Sloan image shows this is a group of three overlapping galaxies. What I can't find out is if they are interacting or even related. NED gives the trio a redshift of 1.16 billion light-years but is this true of all parts or just the brightest one. If this is about to be a major collision, things could get interesting in a few million years. I've included the much clearer Sloan image. It may be just two galaxies rather than three. Hard to tell but looks to me like the right one is in front of the main galaxy with the other behind.

Three asteroids show faintly in the image. Due to poor seeing, they are rather faint and fuzzy. Details are in the annotated image. 2016 EW80 was just discovered this year. I took this image on March 12. I note the position given by the Minor Planet Center is off by several seconds of arc. Usually, they are quite accurate. They are asking for observations of it starting April 17. Their last observation was March 10, just two days before my image was taken. The orbit was determined by a 35 day arc so it was likely found in early February.

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

Related Designations for NGC3501

NGC3504

NGC 3504 and NGC 3512 are two interesting near face-on spiral galaxies in eastern Leo Minor near the border of Leo and Ursa Major. Both are considered by some to have starburst cores but NED makes no mention of this in its classifications. These are two rather photogenic galaxies mostly ignored by the amateur imaging community. I didn't find even one image of these at Astrobin or the Cloudy Nights imaging forums. Both were discovered by William Herschel on April 11, 1785. NGC 3504 is in the original H400 observing program. I saw NGC 3504 on April 15, 1985 on a night hurt by high humidity. Using my 10" f/5 at up to 150 power my entry reads "Large, circular galaxy with a brighter nucleus. Nearby 14th magnitude star on top of the galaxy near its edge. Little detail was seen." Sound like I was seeing the outer ring? I'd think that too faint. So why the circular comment. At least I got the star right as I measure it on my image at 14th magnitude. But it's at the edge of the elongated bar, not the ring. Another case of needing Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine. I made no mention of NGC 3512 for some reason. Maybe the night was too poor to see it.

NGC 3512 appears a more normal classic spiral but NED indicates it has elements of a barred galaxy. It too has a starburst core by papers I saw. Its two main arms are not at all symmetrical. The core seems off center to the ring they form in its central region.

There are a number of candidate quasars in the image. Most seem to have spectroscopic distance measurements that should be accurate. If so I suspect that they will eventually achieve confirmed status. Most catalogs already have decided they are.

Otherwise, the background galaxies are pretty much what I get in this part of the sky. Transparency wasn't what it was a few weeks earlier so fewer very distant (over 5 billion light-years look back distance) galaxies are seen. Several NED indicated were bright enough for me to catch on a typical night just didn't come through the gunky night's skies. Knowing it a bit gunky I used 50 minutes of luminance rather than 40 but I needed more to compensate for the lower transparency.

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

Related Designations for NGC3504

NGC3521

NGC 3521 is a very disturbed flocculent spiral galaxy in Leo about 35 million light-years distant. Redshift can be rather misleading giving a distance of 54 million light-years. NED gives it a classification of SAB(rs)bc;HII LINER while the NGC Project just notes it as Sb with H II emission. I didn't pick up any H II emission in my image. Deep images show a lot more to this galaxy than I was able to pick up. I took about 6 times the data used here, nearly all the color data was unusable as was 18 of the 22 luminance frames. The last 12 months have been by far the worst for imaging since I moved here 7 years ago. Actually, all color was unusable by normal standards. I just used the best single frame of each color as using more just made things worse no matter what I did. While I blame weather it was only half guilty. The other half of frames lost were due to a very bright aurora going on two of those nights that fogged the luminance frames and made the color balance awful. No amount of normalization could handle the frame differences which ranged from 450 (120 is normal) background to over 31,000 thanks to that aurora I slept through. If conditions ever improve I'll try again.

Most sources attribute all the plumes due to the remains of several dwarf galaxies it has consumed. One dwarf MGC 0016030 (near the western edge of my frame) has the same redshift so is likely a companion that has survived (so far). Because of my very weak color data, these plumes are in mono only as the clouds and aurora drown out any hope of color data for these faint features. Due to better than average seeing on the 4 luminance frames, I did use I was able to pull out a lot of detail right to the core of the galaxy. Much of the detail is "fogged" by all the scattered stars in its halo from galaxies it has consumed. Only a narrow region on the west (right) side is mostly clear of this "fog". This is why the contrast suddenly improves in a small area. Really makes it look strange. My processing cut through this "fog" to bring out as much of the flocculant nature as I could. If I could have used all 22 frames then I'd likely have processed for the plumes instead. It was discovered by William Herschel on February 22, 1784. It is in the original H400 program. My log entry from April 16, 1985 on a fair but humid night at up to 150x with my 10" f/5 reads: "Large, tilted spiral with a brilliant starlike nucleus. Some hints of detail the outer arms. A good galaxy." But I can't find that I ever looked at it again.

CGCG 141-072 is oddly classed as a dwarf irregular galaxy. Looks like a barred spiral to me that has nice plumes coming off both arms. At over 10 times the distance of NGC 3521, it is small but not dwarf size. To its north is LEDA 135771. It too is classed as a dwarf irregular. This time it makes perfect sense. It is at the right distance and size to be a dwarf companion of NGC 3521. Is it next to be consumed?

MGC 0015934 is classed as Sc. I don't have sufficient resolution at a half billion light years to say if that is reasonable. Looks tighter than that but this may be due to my resolution.

2dFGRS N368Z219 to the southeast is one strange galaxy. It has a very blue bright core with faint, somewhat spiral plumes or arms. Again, my color data missed these plumes. The Sloan image shows these as the same blue color as the core. NED makes no attempt to classify it nor any other galaxy in the image.

Arp liked to find significance in quasars near disturbed galaxies thinking they were nearby objects ejected by these galaxies. A theory he never could support to the satisfaction of the astronomy community but he never gave up. I can't find that he used this one in support of his ideas even though it has far more quasars than average and is highly disturbed.

Near the lower left corner is the rather common galaxy 2dFGRS N368Z212. I'd not mention it but noticed its redshift distance by NED's 5 year WMAP calculation is 666 million light-years. Is it the home of "The Beast"? I was annotating this when a character made the news resigning from his job because his W2 carried the processing number of 666.

NED listed a ton of very faint galaxies with redshift data. I listed a couple down to 23rd magnitude but omitted about 100 of them as not worth the effort.

There are two very short asteroid trails that are noted in the annotated image. They are likely short because they are at the end of their retrograde motion and about to begin normal eastward motion across the sky after we have passed them.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=1x10' (All poor frames), STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designations for NGC3521

NGC3583

NGC 3583 is a barred spiral, SB(s)b, in Ursa Major about 110 million light-years from us. It would fit Arp's category for spiral galaxies with a high surface brightness companion on its arm. Sometimes the companion was a true companion but most of the time either we still don't know or it wasn't a true companion. This time however it is a true companion and he didn't include it. Both have about the same redshift indicating they are related. Most sources NED notes call it an E0 galaxy. I find that odd on two counts. First E0 should be spherical and it is distinctly oval. Also, most E0 galaxies are rather red this one is blue though when IR is added to the mix by the Sloan survey it turns white. Still the wrong color. While it doesn't appear to be interacting I can't help but wonder if its shape indicates interaction has occurred, likely in the distant past. Something has to have triggered strong star formation in the last billion years or so for it to have this blue tint. NGC 3583 was discovered by William Herschel on February 5, 1788. It is in the second H400 program.

On the other side is what to me appears to be a bright knot in NGC 3583's western arm. I have indicated this knot with a question mark. NED considers it a separate galaxy rather than a part of the galaxy. No papers I find mention it however as being another companion. They only refer to the E0 and NGC 3577 5 minutes to the southwest. I still think it part of the galaxy until more data comes in.

West of NGC 3583 is the galaxy cluster GMBCG J168.46640+48.31697. In this case, the distance to the cluster it shows as being estimated photographically while the BCG that anchors the cluster and is highly visible in my image doesn't carry this note. Their distances vary though not by much. I've listed both though I feel the difference is due to the difference in error bars between these two measurement methods. The cluster is listed as having 11 members with no cluster radius given. It is 3.5 to 3.6 billion light-years away depending on which estimate you believe.

Southwest of NGC 3583 is NGC 3577. It too is a barred spiral, SB(r)a by NED and SBb by the NGC project. Arms seem too spread out for NED's classification so I prefer that of the NGC project. It is what I call a lawn sprinkler galaxy. The bar is long and thin like my old walking lawn sprinkler which spun at high speed and when viewed out my second story window had water going out in a spiral much like the arms of this galaxy. It too seems to have a companion on its arm to the northeast. In this case, however, I think it likely it is a very distant galaxy. Unfortunately, there's no redshift data to settle the issue. The companion is SDSS J111346.01+481650.8. NGC 3577, at 250 million light-years, is over twice as far away as NGC 3583 so they are unrelated, they just share nearly the same line of sight as seen from earth. NGC 3577 was discovered by William Herschel on April 1, 1788. It isn't in either H400 program.

NGC 3577 does have a real companion, MCG +08-21-004, also at 250 million light-years. It too is a barred spiral and a very blue one. NED, however, doesn't classify it or give any more detail on it. Could it have interacted with NGC 3577? Yes, but that doesn't mean it has. It has a shape similar to a couple Arp put in his integral sign class though, like them, I see only a very remote similarity to the sign. How or why Arp missed this three for one field I don't know.

To the northwest of NGC 3583 is SDSS J111345.41+482405.4, a dwarf galaxy at 100 million light-years. It could possibly be related to NGC 3583 though I saw nothing indicating this. Since I'm rounding and these distances are estimates they could be considerably closer than the 10 million light-year difference would indicate.

Southeast of NGC 3583 is another galaxy cluster, GMBCG J168.76711+48.22342. In this case, both the galaxy and BCG have photographic redshift measurements which agree. Likely because it is a single measurement. It shows it to be 4.7 billion light-years distant with 8 members. No radius is given. To its northeast is another cluster, GMBCG J168.85254+48.25542 at 4.6 billion light-years. The galaxy just to its north is likely much closer and not part of the cluster though a few other fuzzies in the area could be members. NED shows it with 12 members but again, no radius.

Yet another galaxy cluster is in the lower right corner, GMBCG J168.17596+48.17003 consists of 8 members again in an unknown radius. Its photographic redshift shows a distance of 4.7 billion light-years.

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

Related Designations for NGC3583

NGC3607

The NGC 3607 group consists mostly of elliptical or elliptical-like galaxies with spirals limited to the edges. It is about 50 to 70 million light-years away and located in the hindquarters of Leo the Lion. The entire group doesn't fit my field. I was going to center on NGC 3607 but the two spirals well to the south caught my eye. I couldn't quite fit NGC 3608 in and them too without rotating my camera. As it was -30C the night I took this and I don't have an electrical rotator that didn't happen. Ellipticals aren't often as interesting as spirals so I opted to cut off the elliptical. Also, I couldn't quite fit in NGC 3599 an SA0: member of the group that was just too far west and still fit in PGC34493 which seemed more interesting to me though a lot smaller. The f/8 version of this scope came out several years after I bought the f/10 version. It would have had the field I need. Consult the annotated image for other galaxies in the 50 to 70 million light-year range for others in the group.

Note the near starlike ASK 623471.0 seen in the eastern halo of NGC 3607. Assuming it and NGC 3607 are both about 60 million light-years away it is only 2,600 light-years across compared to at least 90 million light-years for NGC 3607 that appears about to devour it. Perspective may make it seem they are close. One may well be several million light-years closer or further than the other.

The field is only about 12 degrees above the ecliptic. I had expected an asteroid or two in the image. All I got were a couple pieces of space junk I processed out.

The 3 NGC galaxies were discovered by William Herschel on March 14, 1784.

NGC 3607 and NGC 3608 are in the original H400 program. I observed them on April 16, 1985 with my 10" f/5 at 50x and 160x on a night hampered by high humidity. I say of 3607 "Round galaxy, rapidly brightening toward the center. No detail seen. In the same high power field with NGC 3608." Of NGC 3608 my log entry reads "Similarly to 3607 but smaller. They form a conspicuous pair." Apparently, I wasn't much into featureless elliptical galaxies 33 years ago any more than I am today. Oddly I didn't mention NGC 3605 even though it must have been seen. It is in the second Herschel 400 program. I know I logged it but the log from those vanished during the move up here. So did the original 400 log but I'd moved it into an early computer, a Heathkit IBM PC clone and the ASCII copy of that file is still in my present computer. I never digitized the second list. I was going to but that never happened before both original logs were lost.

There are three blue, very low surface brightness blobs of a galaxy in the image. NED had little on them, not even a distance estimate. Are they part of the group? I have no way to know. I've identified them on the annotated image even without any distance data.

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

Related Designations for NGC3607

NGC3614

The barred spiral galaxy, NGC 3614 is located in Ursa Major nearly 10 degrees below the bowl of the Big Dipper portion of the constellation. It is a huge spiral that I measure to be some 170,000 light-years across thanks to the distorted arm on the eastern (left) side. Some sources say it is not barred but it certainly looks barred to me and that's what NED considers it classifying it as SAB(r)c though the NGC Project calls it simply Sc. The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on February 5, 1793 but is in neither of the two Herschel 400 observing programs. Its surface brightness is much fainter than my image would indicate as I stretched it considerably more than usual to bring out its spiral structure. I doubt it is an easy target for visual observers unless they are using a 10" or larger scope under very good skies.

It has a couple small dwarf companions as shown in the annotated image. Though NGC 3614A is not a companion as its redshift puts it over 2.6 times further away. It is listed as a Magellanic barred spiral though it looks more like a mess to my eye. At the time of the VV catalog, it was considered a possible companion to NGC 3614 but redshift shows that isn't the case. As a Magellanic spiral, it is rather large. I get a size of 78,000 light-years thanks to the rather separated star clouds at its southern end. If it is a barred spiral as its classification says then it is very non-symmetrical with a strong bar to the south and none I can see going north. In any case, it is a low surface brightness galaxy. It appears to have its own dwarf companions. ASK 346540.0 to the west-southwest and ASK 345024.0 further due west.

The annotated image shows that many of the other galaxies fall into two groups, one at about 880 million light-years and another at about 1.450 billion light-years. Neither group seemed to be identified at NED that I found unless the centers lie outside my field. I didn't check for that possibility.

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

Related Designations for NGC3614