ASTRO: The USGC U037 galaxy group

The USGC U037 galaxy group is something you take waiting for the next
Arp galaxy to get in position. It is a small group of 5 galaxies
averaging about 250 million light years away. This field is not well
cataloged. Only about 20 galaxies in the image are in NED's catalogs.
Only the 5 in the group have red shift data. The rather big blue galaxy
on the western edge of my image isn't cataloged at NED nor is the very
odd linear blue feature just southwest of UGC 244. On the raw image I
figured it to be a star and edge on galaxy of some sort. When both came
back the same shade of blue I began to wonder if this was coincidence or
it is just one object. Unfortunately that is still an unanswered
question. But after processing the eastern part, I thought a star, is
elongated so it's not a star. Maybe two galaxies both very blue? If so
they sure line up.

The biggest galaxy in the group is NGC 296, a nice spiral. But NED and
the NGC project see it very differently. NED says it is SBb a barred
spiral with moderately spread arms. The NGC project say it is Scd. A
spiral (not barred) with much wider spaced arms. I think I see a bar
when I enlarge the image but its arms seem wider than NED suggests so
I'd say maybe SBcd combining the two to some extent.

The Sky and some other catalogs I have show NGC 295 in the image. They
plot it close to NGC 296. Some put it almost on top of 296 as if it
were a double listing. The sky moves it about 4 minutes of arc
southwest. Dr. Corwin of the NGC project says it is "lost" though he
hasn't searched too widely for it. The rest of the galaxies in the
group are UGC 548, UGC 565, UGC 566 and UGC 567. Some catalogs list UGC
565 as NGC 296. So for a poorly cataloged area it sure has some
identification issues.

Distances in the annotated image -- all 5 of them -- are in millions of
light years rather than billions I normally use. Three digits of
accuracy I display are from NED (5 year WMAP) which far exceeds our
ability to translate red shift into distance. A nice round quarter of a
billion light years for all is more like it. NED lists distance
measurements to NGC 296 ranging from 142 million light years to 261
million light years. That's quite a difference.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10'x3, 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".

What a nice field! Lots of beautiful galaxies. I especially like UGC 566.

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
ster.com...
The USGC U037 galaxy group is something you take waiting for the next
Arp galaxy to get in position. It is a small group of 5 galaxies
averaging about 250 million light years away. This field is not well
cataloged. Only about 20 galaxies in the image are in NED's catalogs.
Only the 5 in the group have red shift data. The rather big blue galaxy
on the western edge of my image isn't cataloged at NED nor is the very
odd linear blue feature just southwest of UGC 244. On the raw image I
figured it to be a star and edge on galaxy of some sort. When both came
back the same shade of blue I began to wonder if this was coincidence or
it is just one object. Unfortunately that is still an unanswered
question. But after processing the eastern part, I thought a star, is
elongated so it's not a star. Maybe two galaxies both very blue? If so
they sure line up.

The biggest galaxy in the group is NGC 296, a nice spiral. But NED and
the NGC project see it very differently. NED says it is SBb a barred
spiral with moderately spread arms. The NGC project say it is Scd. A
spiral (not barred) with much wider spaced arms. I think I see a bar
when I enlarge the image but its arms seem wider than NED suggests so
I'd say maybe SBcd combining the two to some extent.

The Sky and some other catalogs I have show NGC 295 in the image. They
plot it close to NGC 296. Some put it almost on top of 296 as if it
were a double listing. The sky moves it about 4 minutes of arc
southwest. Dr. Corwin of the NGC project says it is "lost" though he
hasn't searched too widely for it. The rest of the galaxies in the
group are UGC 548, UGC 565, UGC 566 and UGC 567. Some catalogs list UGC
565 as NGC 296. So for a poorly cataloged area it sure has some
identification issues.

Distances in the annotated image -- all 5 of them -- are in millions of
light years rather than billions I normally use. Three digits of
accuracy I display are from NED (5 year WMAP) which far exceeds our
ability to translate red shift into distance. A nice round quarter of a
billion light years for all is more like it. NED lists distance
measurements to NGC 296 ranging from 142 million light years to 261
million light years. That's quite a difference.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10'x3, 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".

I imaged NGC 295 in 2008 and when checking with Simbad failed to see
the "essential notes" about the confusion between 295 and 296

Need to correct my web site.

On Sun, 07 Nov 2010 17:03:52 -0600, Rick Johnson
wrote:

The USGC U037 galaxy group is something you take waiting for the next
Arp galaxy to get in position. It is a small group of 5 galaxies
averaging about 250 million light years away. This field is not well
cataloged. Only about 20 galaxies in the image are in NED's catalogs.
Only the 5 in the group have red shift data. The rather big blue galaxy
on the western edge of my image isn't cataloged at NED nor is the very
odd linear blue feature just southwest of UGC 244. On the raw image I
figured it to be a star and edge on galaxy of some sort. When both came
back the same shade of blue I began to wonder if this was coincidence or
it is just one object. Unfortunately that is still an unanswered
question. But after processing the eastern part, I thought a star, is
elongated so it's not a star. Maybe two galaxies both very blue? If so
they sure line up.

The biggest galaxy in the group is NGC 296, a nice spiral. But NED and
the NGC project see it very differently. NED says it is SBb a barred
spiral with moderately spread arms. The NGC project say it is Scd. A
spiral (not barred) with much wider spaced arms. I think I see a bar
when I enlarge the image but its arms seem wider than NED suggests so
I'd say maybe SBcd combining the two to some extent.

The Sky and some other catalogs I have show NGC 295 in the image. They
plot it close to NGC 296. Some put it almost on top of 296 as if it
were a double listing. The sky moves it about 4 minutes of arc
southwest. Dr. Corwin of the NGC project says it is "lost" though he
hasn't searched too widely for it. The rest of the galaxies in the
group are UGC 548, UGC 565, UGC 566 and UGC 567. Some catalogs list UGC
565 as NGC 296. So for a poorly cataloged area it sure has some
identification issues.

Distances in the annotated image -- all 5 of them -- are in millions of
light years rather than billions I normally use. Three digits of
accuracy I display are from NED (5 year WMAP) which far exceeds our
ability to translate red shift into distance. A nice round quarter of a
billion light years for all is more like it. NED lists distance
measurements to NGC 296 ranging from 142 million light years to 261
million light years. That's quite a difference.

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

Rick