VV 697

VV 697 is a quadruple galaxy though NED only catalogs 3. Is the 4th
related? Wish I knew.

At the center of the 4 are two spiral galaxies, one, a near edge on
somewhat obscured by the face on. The edge on galaxy is the uncataloged
one. It does appear to be behind the spiral. How far behind I can't
tell. It's the mystery galaxy for this image. The other three
constitute VV697 as NED sees it. The center one, partly hiding the
unknown galaxy is VV 697 NED 02. NED lists it as a starburst spiral
with HII emissions. It appears to be the center galaxy. Redshift puts
it at 755 million light-years away. The galaxy to the northwest is VV
697 NED01. To me it looks like a SB(r) galaxy but NED just calls it
Peculiar and notes it has a Seyfert 1 core. Redshift puts it at 747
million light-years. It has large plumes so may be interacting with its
companion to the east. A bar of stars appears to connect the two at
their southern ends. The galaxy to the south is VV 697 NED03. NED
lists it simply as a spiral with HII emission. Redshift puts it at 753
million light-years. The redshift differences are immaterial and likely
just reflect relative velocity rather than real distance differences.
It is safe to say this group is about 750 million light-years distant
and let it go at that. This group is in the northeast corner of the
Great Square of Pegasus not far from Alpha Andromedae. The PGC numbers
for the three galaxies NED1 through 3 respectively are 72911, 72910 and
72909.

There is little on the rest of the field. The thin edge on galaxy to
the northeast is 2MFGC 17969. So it is indeed an official "flat
galaxy", just not as flat as those in the Flat Galaxy Catalog. The fuzz
ball galaxy in the lower left corner is the IR galaxy 2MASX
J23565508+2521263. A handful of other fainter galaxies are listed in
NED. None with much useful information, nearly all from the 2 micron
survey. The exception is GALEX 2667408633447319057 which is a quasar
candidate but has no red shift distance. It is listed as a UvES which
often turn out to be quasars. To find it follow the line from VV697
through the flat galaxy and continue about the same distance. You
should come to a very blue star that's rather bright. It is above a
much brighter orange star and below a blue white star also brighter than
the quasar candidate but fainter than the orange star. It's the bluest
object in the area.

This field has been covered in the DR8 Sloan release. I've attached an
image from that release of this area. But the data hasn't, as yet, been
incorporated into NED. When it is I imagine some of the questions will
get answered. This grouping was another suggested by Sakib Rasool.

One green frame was lost to clouds.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RB=2x10'x3 G=1x10'x3, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

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