Arp 228 has a lot of interesting "friends"

Arp 228/IC 0162 is the largest and likely anchoring galaxy of a small
cluster of galaxies. Their red shift distances range from 220 to 246
million light years. The difference is mostly due to their orbital
velocities about a common center of gravity. Since Arp 228 is likely
the anchor its red shift of 223 million light years may be a good
estimate of the distance to the group. It is classed as S0. Arp put it
in his class of concentric ring galaxies. It appears his image failed
to pick up the extent of the outer ring. At least the outer ring I
picked up. Deeper shots may show yet another ring for all I know. Arp
228 likely is the end result of a normal spiral fattened up on many
smaller galaxies in its group.

MCG +02-05-039 just to its southeast is a very odd looking galaxy. NED
doesn't try to classify it. Is it being distorted by Arp 228? Sort of
reminded me of a Vargas Girl, big bust, tiny waist and large hips. It's
red shift puts it at 234 million light years which may be yet another
indication it is getting whip-sawed by Arp 228. To the west of Arp 228
is another pair of galaxies. IC 0161/UGC 01266 and UGC 01266 Notes01.
They show red shift distances of 231 and 246 million light years
respectively. The little guy may also be getting whip-sawed by the
gravity of the larger or they may just be along the same line of sight.
A note at NED says IC 161 is non existent so the galaxy is not IC 161.
The Kanipe-Webb book only uses the MCG designation but NED itself
gives IC 0161 as its primary designation for the galaxy. The IC
description of 161 may not fit. It says "considerably extremely faint,
very small, round. Though the visual observers may only be seeing the
core which is round. For comparison the description of 162 which is Arp
228 reads, extremely extremely faint, small, little extended. That
would indicate only its core was likely seen as well.

UGC 01268 north of Arp 228 is classed as S? It appears to be a red
spiral of some sort. Its red shift says it is 220 million light years
distant, the closest of the group but again this may not necessarily be
the case.

UGC 01263 is the face on spiral to the northwest of Arp 228. It too is
classed as only S? It appears to be a barred spiral with a ring and
outer d arms. It certainly is peculiar. Red shift puts it at 227
million light years. It seems unusually red for such a spiral. The
pair of red double stars between it and Arp 228 are much redder than I
normally see. Are they a true pair I wonder?

The only other galaxy in the image with a red shift is MRC 0145+102. It
is listed at 21.4 magnitude but no filter is given. My normal limiting
magnitude is about 22 and from the estimated brightness of the asteroids
in the image it would appear I'm reaching at least magnitude 22 probably
22.5 or so. But this one is far fainter than that would indicate. It
is a radio source. I've noted the optical component on the annotated
image, southwest of Arp 228. According to NED it has a redshift of
z=2.845000! That means the light I'm imaging was well into the
ultraviolet when it left the galaxy some 11.4 billion years ago. That
has to be one super object to show a physical size at that distance!
You may have to enlarge the image to find it.

I managed to pick up 6 asteroids, most exceedingly faint. I found the
three faintest only because the Minor Planet Center said they were there
and gave the position. All are shown in the annotated image. I had to
save the annotated image at a rather low compression to preserve these
faint rocks. At my normal compression they vanished into the noise of
JPG's lossy compression. The magnitude estimates of the minor planet
center a

(17490) 1991 UC3 17.2
(159815) 2003 SF220 19.6
2001 XF212 19.6
(221749) 2007 EQ196 20.3
(223293) 2003 HM54 20.7
(138468) 2000 JW44 21.0

The position of (223293) 2003 HM54 was about 45" of arc off. This is a
bit unusual but not unprecedented.

Arp's image:
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level...ig_arp228.jpeg

Rick
--
Correct domain name is arvig and it is net not com. Prefix is correct.
Third character is a zero rather than a capital "Oh".

Need to update my targer list.

On Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:41:42 -0500, Rick Johnson
wrote:

Arp 228/IC 0162 is the largest and likely anchoring galaxy of a small
cluster of galaxies. Their red shift distances range from 220 to 246
million light years. The difference is mostly due to their orbital
velocities about a common center of gravity. Since Arp 228 is likely
the anchor its red shift of 223 million light years may be a good
estimate of the distance to the group. It is classed as S0. Arp put it
in his class of concentric ring galaxies. It appears his image failed
to pick up the extent of the outer ring. At least the outer ring I
picked up. Deeper shots may show yet another ring for all I know. Arp
228 likely is the end result of a normal spiral fattened up on many
smaller galaxies in its group.

MCG +02-05-039 just to its southeast is a very odd looking galaxy. NED
doesn't try to classify it. Is it being distorted by Arp 228? Sort of
reminded me of a Vargas Girl, big bust, tiny waist and large hips. It's
red shift puts it at 234 million light years which may be yet another
indication it is getting whip-sawed by Arp 228. To the west of Arp 228
is another pair of galaxies. IC 0161/UGC 01266 and UGC 01266 Notes01.
They show red shift distances of 231 and 246 million light years
respectively. The little guy may also be getting whip-sawed by the
gravity of the larger or they may just be along the same line of sight.
A note at NED says IC 161 is non existent so the galaxy is not IC 161.
The Kanipe-Webb book only uses the MCG designation but NED itself
gives IC 0161 as its primary designation for the galaxy. The IC
description of 161 may not fit. It says "considerably extremely faint,
very small, round. Though the visual observers may only be seeing the
core which is round. For comparison the description of 162 which is Arp
228 reads, extremely extremely faint, small, little extended. That
would indicate only its core was likely seen as well.

UGC 01268 north of Arp 228 is classed as S? It appears to be a red
spiral of some sort. Its red shift says it is 220 million light years
distant, the closest of the group but again this may not necessarily be
the case.

UGC 01263 is the face on spiral to the northwest of Arp 228. It too is
classed as only S? It appears to be a barred spiral with a ring and
outer d arms. It certainly is peculiar. Red shift puts it at 227
million light years. It seems unusually red for such a spiral. The
pair of red double stars between it and Arp 228 are much redder than I
normally see. Are they a true pair I wonder?

The only other galaxy in the image with a red shift is MRC 0145+102. It
is listed at 21.4 magnitude but no filter is given. My normal limiting
magnitude is about 22 and from the estimated brightness of the asteroids
in the image it would appear I'm reaching at least magnitude 22 probably
22.5 or so. But this one is far fainter than that would indicate. It
is a radio source. I've noted the optical component on the annotated
image, southwest of Arp 228. According to NED it has a redshift of
z=2.845000! That means the light I'm imaging was well into the
ultraviolet when it left the galaxy some 11.4 billion years ago. That
has to be one super object to show a physical size at that distance!
You may have to enlarge the image to find it.

I managed to pick up 6 asteroids, most exceedingly faint. I found the
three faintest only because the Minor Planet Center said they were there
and gave the position. All are shown in the annotated image. I had to
save the annotated image at a rather low compression to preserve these
faint rocks. At my normal compression they vanished into the noise of
JPG's lossy compression. The magnitude estimates of the minor planet
center a

(17490) 1991 UC3 17.2
(159815) 2003 SF220 19.6
2001 XF212 19.6
(221749) 2007 EQ196 20.3
(223293) 2003 HM54 20.7
(138468) 2000 JW44 21.0

The position of (223293) 2003 HM54 was about 45" of arc off. This is a
bit unusual but not unprecedented.

Arp's image:
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level...ig_arp228.jpeg

Rick