ASTRO: NGC 5934, 5935, 5943, 5945

This field contains 4 NGC galaxies, all either interacting or distorted
by past interactions plus a 5th rather normal one. The field is located
in northeastern Bootes. All are likely members of the same local group
about a quarter billion light-years distant by redshift measurement.
One or two "lesser" members of the group are in the field as well.

NGC 5934 and NGC 5935 are an obvious pair of interacting galaxies. Both
have plumes drawn out of them by the interaction. NGC 5934 is listed as
a spiral of questionable classification. NGC 5935 is listed as S? as
well by the NGC Project but NED leaves off the question mark. To me
they both look odd. I wouldn't argue with NGC 5935 being S0 but 5934
looks unquestionably spiral to me. Maybe they mean they can't decide
what type of spiral it is, barred or not barred. Below the pair is
KISSR 1955 a starburst galaxy with a faint outer halo. Starburst
activity can be triggered by interaction with another galaxy but this
isn't necessary.

NGC 5945 is a nice face on barred spiral whose arms overlap making a
pseudo ring. Besides these rings there are two outer arm segments that
see to make huge "ears" on the east and west sides of the galaxy.
Inside the ring on the west side is a "bright" object listed as SDSS
J152943.21+425511.2, a star and [BFW2006] J232.42996+42.91977 a galaxy.
So is it a star or a galaxy. Its distance measurement is about the
same as NGC 5945 but it is a friend of a friend estimate rather than
spectroscopically determined. So is it a star or a galaxy? Of NED's 5
entries for this object 4 call it a galaxy. While it is hard to measure
the PSF of an object on top of another what I am seeing is identical to
a star of similar magnitude in the image. That would indicate it is
quite small in angular size, more like a star than a galaxy but if this
is all that's left of the core of a cannibalized galaxy. That might
explain the "ears".

The main target of my interest in taking this field however is NGC 5943.
This galaxy is very fuzzy with large plumes. I didn't realize how
large when I took this image or I'd have put a lot more time into it
(weather willing which likely would not have allowed it). Faintly seen
in my image are two huge plumes going to the northwest and southeast.
It too has a near starlike companion, ASK 245539.0. Though its PSF is
very galaxy like so easy to confirm it is a galaxy. Usually plumes like
those seen in 5943 are due to a merger. In this case it might be that
the companion is still in the process of merging. Note the brightest
part of the plume leads nearly to ASK 245539.0. Unfortunately I find no
papers on either NGC 5943 or NGC 5945.

The ordinary looking NGC galaxy, NGC 5947 is a rather pretty face on
barred spiral with many arm segments. I didn't think about it when
picking the center coordinates for the image as I was thinking only of
the other 4. This resulted in it being chopped off on the eastern side.
The other nice spiral in the image is CGCG 222-012. Smaller than NGC
5947 and tilted at a rather steep angle it is difficult to see its
structure. While no bar is seen nor is it classified as a barred spiral
the arms I see seem to start well out from the core as if coming from
the ends of an unseen bar. It too appears to be a member of the same
group as the others. Several more are out of the field.

Unfortunately, seeing was very poor for this image. There's a lot of
fine detail in all of these galaxies I failed to pick up due to the
seeing. I hope to try again for it if the weather ever permits. This
isn't representative of the field I'm sorry to say.

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

Rick
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