ASTRO: NGC 7265 A huge galaxy

NGC 7265 is an S0^- galaxy in Lacerta about 220 million light-years from
us by redshift. It seems to have a lot of spiral structure for an S0-
galaxy. It is a very large galaxy with a diameter of some 235,000
light-years assuming the distance is 220 million light-years.

To its east is the strange galaxy UGC 12007. The CGCG describes it as a
neutral patchy post eruptive pear-shaped compact with a very extended
halo plus jet (southwest) that lies southwest of a bright star. To me
it is a rather typical barred spiral but one with a very extended halo.
It's possible the southwest arm is brighter than the northeast one
though it could be an illusion due to the bright star. I certainly
don't see it is pear-shaped. It's redshift distance is about 210 million
light-years. It is likely related to NGC 7265. A past interaction may
have caused its large halo and possible the featureless outer ring
around NGC 7265.

The edge on near the top looks like a small version of NGC 891 but with
less blue. It is NGC 7264, an Sb spiral with a redshift of 180 million
light-years. Still it could be a member of the same group as NGC 7265,
just one that is currently moving rapidly our direction due to where it
is in its orbit.

UGC 12013 near the bottom of the image left of center is classified
simply as a spiral and at 230 million light-years is likely a member of
the group. A bit more questionable is NGC 7263 to the nor+thwest corner
of my image. It's redshift distance of 270 million light-years puts it
possibly a bit too far to be a member of the group. The CGCG says of it:
"Pair of red fuzzy elliptical with compact disc and neutral spherical
compact (or star). Separation = 13 arcsec [south-east] - [north-west].
Spectrum: Absorption: Ca H and K (+ star)." Several other sources
consider it a pair of galaxies. Even my database in The Sky says both
are NGC 7263. Still NED lists only one object here and I agree. The
PSF of the northwest object is virtually identical to a similarly bright
star nearly due west of the object. No known galaxy in the image has a
PSF identical to a star in the image. It is listed as S?.

NED shows one galaxy group, USGC U813 with 9 members at 220 million
light-years. This has to be the group anchored by NGC 7265 though no
diameter is given. Except for 2 LEDA galaxies redshift data isn't
available for any of the other members of the group. Since the
annotated image wasn't very dense with identifiable galaxies, all that
NED did have identified are shown in the annotated image. Most with a ?
for distance as it wasn't available.

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

Rick
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