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1) UGC 4332: at 375x appeared fairly bright, fairly small, brighter
along a thin strip of the major axis, elongated 5:2 WSW-ENE, 20"x8",
fairly high surface brightness. A faint, thin spike extends out
of the southwest side, though in soft seeing I couldn't see the
corresponding extension on the northeast end. PGC 23359 lies 3.0'
S. Centered within a roughly equilateral triangle of 12th magnitude
stars (sides at most 2').
On the SDSS image, this system appears to be a merger, with a
warped, dusty, edge-on disc bisecting an elliptical and protruding
out the ends. Listed as a "Good Candidate for Polar-Ring
Galaxies" in the 1990 "New Observations and a Photographic
Atlas of Polar Ring Galaxies" (AJ, 100, 1489) but in a 2000
study "It is shown that its inclusion in a list of candidate
galaxies with polar rings is erroneous. In reality, it is a spiral
galaxy with a powerful bulge and a disturbed dust disk viewed
edge-on." |
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2) HCG 40: This superb HCG (also Arp 321 = VV 116) is arranged in
a 1.8' chain oriented N-S (second observation with the 48"):
HCG 40A is very bright, moderately large, oval 4:3 N-S, 40"x30",
small very bright core, high surface brightness. A mag 15.5 star
is 30" NW of center. HCG 40B is bright, fairly small, irregularly
round, bright core, high surface brightness. HCG 40C is moderately
bright, very elongated 4:1 NW-SE, 40"x10". HCG 40B is
attached at the southeast end and 40E is very close off the east
side. HCG 40D is fairly bright, fairly small, elongated 5:2 WSW-ENE,
very small bright nucleus. A mag 14.5 star is off the southeast
edge. Finally, 40E is the faintest of 5 in HCG 40 appeared fairly
faint, small, elongated 5:2 SW-NE, 20"x8", very small
brighter nucleus. Situated just 45" SE of HCG 40A. |
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| 3) NGC 3023: at 375x appeared very bright, large,
irregular, asymmetric with a bright, slightly elongated central
region, ~40"x30". Extending to the west of the core
is large, faint halo or loop, most evident on the north side of
the loop which is brighter and more sharply defined as it sweeps
to the west towards companion NGC 3018. The loop extends the diameter
to ~1.7'. Mrk 1236, is a very small, but very high surface brightness
companion attached on the east side of the core. PGC 1170217 =
MAC 0950+0035 was picked up in the field, 4.4' ESE. |
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| 4) HCG 52: 52A is the brightest member of the HCG 52 quartet with
52B 0.9' NW, 52D 0.8' SW and 52C 2.5' S. It appeared moderately
bright, fairly small, elongated 3:2 NW-SE, 25"x18", weak
concentration. A mag 17.5 star lies 1.2' SE. Three members have
similar redshifts but 52D is half as large. 52B is the second brightest
member of the quartet and appeared faint to fairly faint, edge-on
4:1 WSW-ENE, 24"x6", low even surface brightness. 52C
was faint, small, elongated 3:2 E-W, 20"x12", even surface
brightness. 52D is the faintest member of the HCG 52 quartet appeared
extremely faint and small, round, 6" diameter. This observation
was made during a period of poor transparency. |
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| 5) NGC 4298/4302: NGC 4298 is very bright, large,
oval 2:1 NW-SE, 2.5'x1.5'. Contains a very bright core, which increases
to a small bright nucleus. The core is offset a bit to the NW side.
The halo extends further to the southeast side and a weakly defined
spiral arm is evident in the outer halo on the west side, extending
to the southeast end. A mag 13.5 star is at the east side, 0.8'
from the core. Forms a striking pair with NGC 4302 2' E. This beautiful,
thin edge-on stretched at least 8:1 N-S, ~5.0'x0.5'. Contains a
brighter, elongated, mottled core. A very thin dust lane extends
along the major axis! The core is slightly brighter on the east
side of the dust lane. The northern tip extends beyond a mag 14.2
star off the NW end. A mag 14.3 star is just west of the southern
tip. |
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>6) NGC 4559: very bright, very large, very elongated
3:1 NW-SE, 9'x3', large bright core that gradually increases to
the center. The core is irregular, mottled and dusty. The inner
portion of the disc shows weak spiral structure. At 488x, the outer
halo is very patchy with several knots. Superimposed on the southeast
side are three mag 12/12.5/13 stars between 1.5'-2' from center
and the galaxy fades out rapidly beyond these stars to the southeast.
Near the southeast end is IC 3563, a very compact HII region and
IC 3564, a star association attached on the east side. Both objects
were easily visible, but not resolved, as a fairly faint 20"
patch, 3' SE of center.
The outer halo fades out gradually and extends much further on the
northwest side, extending up to 5' NW of center. IC 3555 is faint,
20"x10" HII region, extended NW-SE, and situated 1.8'
NNW of center in the halo. IC 3552, a smaller HII region close NW,
was not seen. IC 3551 is faint, 10" HII knot on the west edge,
0.9' WNW of center. IC 3554 is a mag 15 star 2.1' SSW of center
(at the edge of the visible disc) and IC 3550 = NGC 4559C was seen
as a faint, 8" knot, that appears as a small, detached HII
knot 0.8' WNW of the star. All of the IC numbers were found by Max
Wolf on a Heidelberg plate in 1903. |
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| 7) NGC 4618 = Arp 23: fascinating one-armed asymmetric
spiral (Arp 23). At 488x the core region is offset to the north
side and appeared extremely bright, irregular, elongated 5:3 SW-NE,
1.6'x1.0'. A prominent, thick, knotty arm is attached on the northeast
end and sweeps counterclockwise to the south and then west. IC 3669
is a brighter arc or section of the arm on the southeast side about
1' SE of the core. IC 3668 is a bright, elongated HII region(s)
at the south end of the arm (1.7' S of center), ~20"x10".
The arm continues to rotate towards the north on the west side of
the galaxy, but this feature has a very low surface brightness and
ends roughly west of the core. Only a faint, diffuse glow was seen
to north of the core on the opposite side of the core, with no structure.
The total size of the galaxy extended 3.5'x2.5'. Forms a pair with
NGC 4625 8.3' NNE. Interestingly, both galaxies have single prominent
arms, though the arm in NGC 4625 was more subtle visually. NGC 4625,
a companion to NGC 4618, appeared bright, fairly large,~1.3' diameter,
bright core that is offset to the north side. With careful viewing
a low contrast spiral arm is visible along the south side of the
halo with a darker gap between the arm and the south side of the
core. |
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8) NGC 4774: at 488x this collisional ring galaxy appeared fairly
bright, fairly small, slightly elongated E-W, irregular. Appeared
slightly brighter on the north side, which contained a faint stellar
nucleus, but I didn't resolve the darker center. Forms a close pair
with PGC 2087677, about 30" N of center. The companion, which
is identified as the collider in Madore's collisional ring catalogue,
appeared very faint (V = 16.7), very small, round, 9" diameter.
NGC 4774 is nicknamed as the "Kidney Bean Galaxy" by Zwicky
in his red book (I Zw 45) . It was first mentioned as a ring galaxy
in 1970 by Cannon, Lloyd, Penston in "Ring galaxies" (The
Observatory, Vol. 90, p. 153-154) and it is listed as a collisional
ring in Madore, Nelson and Petrillo's 2009 "Atlas and Catalog
of Collisional Ring Galaxies" (ApJS, Vol 181, p. 572-604). |
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9) HZ 46 = Mrk 54: at 488x this very blue starburst
galaxy contained a bright, stellar nucleus (perhaps 15th magnitude).
Extending to the east was a faint, thin edge-on, ~18"x6"
in size. With careful viewing, a second shorter and fainter "wing",
perhaps 10" in length, angled to the northwest and creating
an unusual "V" or seagull shape.
HZ 46 was discovered by Zwicky on a 18-inch Palomar Schmidt plate
in 1938 as a faint blue star in the north polar galactic cap region.
A couple of years later, Humason analyzed the spectra and found
this object had a high redshift (600 million light years). This
was the first Humason-Zwicky "star" that was identified
as a galaxy. |
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| 10) NGC 4861: very unusual appearance at 488x as the
galaxy is dominated by a very high surface brightness HII region
(Mrk 59) at the SSW end, about 15" in diameter and 13th magnitude.
The knot appeared extremely bright, roundish, sharp-edged. The main
glow of the galaxy is very elongated to the NNE, 3.0'x 0.6', extending
just past a mag 13 star near the opposite end. The core is a somewhat
brighter, elongated, knotty region, offset closer to the giant HII
region. The glow of the galaxy dims as it extends to the star at
the opposite end and fades out just beyond. PGC 101479, a compact
galaxy, is exactly in line with the major axis of NGC 4861, 3.5'
NNE of the mag 12 star. It appeared faint or fairly faint (B = 16.8),
round, 12"-15" diameter. |
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| 11) NGC 4900: this unusual galaxy visually appears
like a barred ring. At 488x a bright nucleus is embedded with a
weak bar, extending NW-SE. A slightly brighter knot is situated
close northwest of the nucleus. A mag 11 star is attached at the
southeast end of the galaxy, collinear with the "bar".
A large, round halo extends 1.7' and is slightly brighter along
portions of the outer edge, forming a weak ring with a slightly
darker interior on either side of the bar. |
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| 12) UGC 8290 = "The Apparition": this fascinating
galaxy is referred to as both "The Apparition" and "The
Sign" by Vorontsov-Vel'yaminov. At 488x, the core appeared
moderately bright, elongated 3:2 SW-NE, 0.3'x0.2', fairly high surface
brightness. Extending to the northeast is a large, low surface brightness
halo, which appeared irregular and knotty. This offset halo increased
the overall size of the galaxy to ~1.2'x0.8'. On the east end of
the halo is a nearly stellar 16-17th mag knot [50" ENE of the
core]. A second low surface brightness knot is at the northeast
tip [1.0' NE of the core]. A third very low contrast knot is 40"
NE of the core. The SDSS image reveals these are the brightest of
a large number of blue knots. PGC 1677429 lies 2.6' NE. |
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| 13) M63: extremely bright and large, elongated 2:1
WNW-ESE, 8'x4'. Contains a large, intense, mottled core that increases
to a small, brilliant nucleus. At 375x, the outer halo of this beautiful
spiral is resolved into several tightly wrapped spiral arcs that
are separated by thin dust lanes. The arm structure is most evident
along the south side of the galaxy with the easiest arm at the outer
edge, particularly where it separates at the western end. The galaxy
extends just beyond a mag 9.3 star at the northwest edge. UGCA 342,
possibly a detached section of the outer halo of M63, lies 8' WSW
of center and 1.2' S of a mag 10.7 star. It appeared extremely faint,
fairly small, elongated 2:1 E-W, 20"x10", very low surface
brightness. |
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14) M83: During this observation of M83, I focused on the HII
regions that light up portions of the remarkable spiral arms that
emanate from the 3'x1' central bar. The bar is sharply concentrated
with a small, intensely bright, 1' round core. At the northeast
end of the bar a high contrast arm begins to sweep counterclockwise
along the east side, ending up directly south of the core. Several
knotty clumps were visible in the region where the arm is attached.
First, at the northeast end of the central bar [1.2' NE of center]
is NGC 5236:[dPD 83] 42, a 10" HII knot. This designation
is from a 1983 paper by de Vaucouleurs, Pence and Davoust that
includes a map of the 60 brightest HII regions. Close east of
this knot is #46, a 20"x10" elongated patch, situated
where the arm begins to unfurl to the south [1.7' NE of center].
HII region #54 is another 12" knot a bit further southeast
[0.6'] along the arm [1.9' ENE of center].
On the opposite southwest end of the bar a prominent second arm
emerges and spirals out counterclockwise along the west side of
the galaxy heading north and then spreading out as it curves east.
The arm dims noticeably on the northeast side of the halo near
a mag 13 star and has a low surface brightness as it continues
south in the outer halo, heading towards h 4599, an 8" pair
of mag 8.2/10.7 stars. Several knots are visible in this arm.
As the arm emerges at the southwest end is #22 and #18, a small
10" knot [1.8' SW of center]. Close north is an elongated
clump [2.0' WSW of center], ~25"x10", containing #13
and #15. Another elongated patch, 30"x10", containing
#12 and #16, is 1' further north along the arm [1.9' WNW of center].
Additional HII regions were visible at the northern side of the
arm; #39 and #43 are a close pair of small knots ~2.5' NNE of
center. Further east along the arm [3.3' NE of center] is #56,
another elongated patch, 20"x10".
A third, wider and more diffuse arm begins on the south side of
the bar. It extends below the brighter arm on the west side, and
sweeps more gradually, forming an outer western arm. This arm
passes just north of a mag 12 star and ends about 4' W of center
at a brighter, elongated patch that includes #2 and #3, as well
as a mag 15 star.
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15) HCG 66: 66A is the brightest member of this quartet and logged
as fairly faint, small, round, 15" diameter, very small bright
core. The entire quartet is in a 1' chain! HCG 66B lies 0.3' E,
with 66C 0.5' SE and 66D 0.7' SE. MCG +10-19-103 lies 2.3' NW.
This galaxy is simlar to HCG 66A, but was not included as a group
member. 66B appeared faint, very small, elongated 3:2 NNW-SSE,
12"x8". 66C appeared faint, very small, elongated 2:1
N-S, 10"x5". 66D is the smallest and faintest member
of this very compact quartet and at the western end of the chain.
At 488x it appeared very faint, extremely small, round, 5"
diameter. The 4 members were easily resolved at 488x in soft seeing.
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