ASTRO: NGC 4647

Due to clouds coming in a a screw up in my programming I ended up with
only one 10 minute frame for each color. I didn't get to take
additional color frames as clouds had rolled in. They've been here ever
since. So I processed it anyway as seeing was better than usual. Some
night everything will work. My dad always said that about his golf game
but every round something, putting, driver, etc. wouldn't go well. I
seem to have the same problem.

Anyway I was taking NGC 4647, the spiral, when this big elliptical nosed
in and tried to hog the shot. Ellipticals are pesky things that way.
In this case it is M60 nearly drowning out the far more interesting
spiral. Color is uneven due to only one frame. Maybe next year I can
get some more color to go with it. For this year it will have to do.
In any case the contrast between the orange M60 and the blue spiral
makes for an interesting pairing. Being in Virgo Cluster there are lots
of other unidentified faint objects in the background.

The bright blob trying to get in the lower right corner is NGC 4638 a S0
lenticular. If I'd have realized it was there I'd have looked harder
for a guide star that allowed me to pick it up as well. That's for next
year.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=6x10' RGB=1x10' all binned 2x2, STL-11000XM,
Paramount ME

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".

"Rick Johnson" wrote

Great image Rick!! Lots of the usual background galaxies too.

Anyway I was taking NGC 4647, the spiral, when this big elliptical nosed
in and tried to hog the shot. Ellipticals are pesky things that way.
In this case it is M60 nearly drowning out the far more interesting
spiral......

Gee, when I was studying galaxy dynamics in college we spent most of our
time on ellipticals. There is so much that is still unknown about this type
of galaxy - like how they form (my guess is by cannibalism), how they
rotate, what's their real shape (I think tri-axial, but who knows), how far
do they extend beyond what we pick up in images, what's the story of the
star formation that goes on near the nucleus, etc. Spirals are not central
blobs with stringy arms attached, but rather continuous disks of stars, gas,
and dust, with bright areas of star formation that only look like separate
structures (arms). We happen to live in the non-arm disk area of a barred
spiral. If we were buried in a spiral arm we'd probably never know about the
rest of the universe.

What I see as interesting in your picture is the likely collision between
two systems that should lead to some real fireworks..... and probably a much
bigger single elliptical galaxy...... or so the computer models predict.

BTW, on closer examination, I believe that you got a few of the brighter
globular clusters in the elliptical.

George N

George Normandin wrote:

"Rick Johnson" wrote

Great image Rick!! Lots of the usual background galaxies too.


Anyway I was taking NGC 4647, the spiral, when this big elliptical nosed
in and tried to hog the shot. Ellipticals are pesky things that way.
In this case it is M60 nearly drowning out the far more interesting
spiral......


Gee, when I was studying galaxy dynamics in college we spent most of our
time on ellipticals. There is so much that is still unknown about this type
of galaxy - like how they form (my guess is by cannibalism), how they
rotate, what's their real shape (I think tri-axial, but who knows), how far
do they extend beyond what we pick up in images, what's the story of the
star formation that goes on near the nucleus, etc. Spirals are not central
blobs with stringy arms attached, but rather continuous disks of stars, gas,
and dust, with bright areas of star formation that only look like separate
structures (arms).

I've had to explain that at Hyde a zillion times to the public. Once
star formation slows down you get an featureless disk like in M90 with
maybe a few knots of activity.

We happen to live in the non-arm disk area of a barred
spiral. If we were buried in a spiral arm we'd probably never know about the
rest of the universe.

But we'd have some really bright neighbor stars if they weren't reddened
out of existence by the dust.


What I see as interesting in your picture is the likely collision between
two systems that should lead to some real fireworks..... and probably a much
bigger single elliptical galaxy...... or so the computer models predict.

I see little indication of interaction between the two. They may be so
far apart they never do interact. If they were really that close tidal
deformation should be obvious and it isn't. Though 4647 is far from a
grand design spiral!


BTW, on closer examination, I believe that you got a few of the brighter
globular clusters in the elliptical.

George N

I needed better seeing. Fuzzy stars from seeing look a lot like
globulars unfortunately.

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".

Great picture Rick. Makes me wonder why I have never imaged this pair. Maybe
I always thought that NGC 4647 was also an elliptical.

Stefan

"George Normandin" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
"Rick Johnson" wrote

Great image Rick!! Lots of the usual background galaxies too.

Anyway I was taking NGC 4647, the spiral, when this big elliptical nosed
in and tried to hog the shot. Ellipticals are pesky things that way.
In this case it is M60 nearly drowning out the far more interesting
spiral......

Gee, when I was studying galaxy dynamics in college we spent most of our
time on ellipticals. There is so much that is still unknown about this
type
of galaxy - like how they form (my guess is by cannibalism), how they
rotate, what's their real shape (I think tri-axial, but who knows), how
far
do they extend beyond what we pick up in images, what's the story of the
star formation that goes on near the nucleus, etc. Spirals are not central
blobs with stringy arms attached, but rather continuous disks of stars,
gas,
and dust, with bright areas of star formation that only look like separate
structures (arms). We happen to live in the non-arm disk area of a barred
spiral. If we were buried in a spiral arm we'd probably never know about
the
rest of the universe.

What I see as interesting in your picture is the likely collision between
two systems that should lead to some real fireworks..... and probably a
much
bigger single elliptical galaxy...... or so the computer models predict.

BTW, on closer examination, I believe that you got a few of the brighter
globular clusters in the elliptical.

George N

"Rick Johnson" wrote

I see little indication of interaction between the two. They may be so
far apart they never do interact. If they were really that close tidal
deformation should be obvious and it isn't. Though 4647 is far from a
grand design spiral!

It seems to be yet another mystery Rick. H. Arp included the pair in his
catalog as Arp 116, and it would seem that they are close, but as you say
there is little indication of deformation, but the most recent study cited
on NED sez that the spiral may show some signs of distortion. Of course they
may be just approaching for a first encounter and then there would be little
distortion. I didn't see any radio observations, which could look for H-I
between them.

My old image of this pair didn't get any globulars but did catch a 17.5 mag
asteroid.

George N