ASTRO: Name that Object

I don't think this one has been posted here before, at least not for
many years. It should be a bit harder to identify. Image scale is
almost exactly 1" of arc per pixel. As a clue it isn't in the IC or NGC
catalogs. I made no attempt to get rid of the two satellites that ran
through two of the luminosity images. One is very faint just west,
right, of the object. Color data is noisy as clouds rolled in cutting
off imaging.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10', RGB=1x10', 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, it is "Hoag's galaxy" or PGC 54559. I have to admit that I didn't know
the PGC number ;-)

Great image btw, I somehow thaught this was a "Hubble only" object.

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
I don't think this one has been posted here before, at least not for
many years. It should be a bit harder to identify. Image scale is
almost exactly 1" of arc per pixel. As a clue it isn't in the IC or NGC
catalogs. I made no attempt to get rid of the two satellites that ran
through two of the luminosity images. One is very faint just west,
right, of the object. Color data is noisy as clouds rolled in cutting
off imaging.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10', RGB=1x10', 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".

The Sky has it in the data base as Hoag's Object (at first it was
thought to be a planetary rather than a galaxy) or I'd probably be still
looking for it! I too was surprised it was as easily imaged as it was.
It is faint but not that difficult. But it is almost unknown to
amateurs it appears. I only found a couple amateur images of it on the
net, one with a 32" scope using a "Cookbook" camera that shows no more
detail than I do, the others less. It isn't that difficult of an object
to photograph and being in Serpens well positioned for a while yet.
There was just too much moon for me to get more color for a couple weeks
so went with what I had. Those blessed with better seeing than I have
should be able to do more with it.

At 600 million light years it is the most distant galaxy I've imaged as
the primary object in the field. It has to be very large to be a minute
of arc across at that distance. One of my cloudy nights here I was
wading through Hubble images and saw it. With nothing to do I decided
to see if it showed up on the DSS plates. When it did, I put it at the
top of my "To Do" list. Otherwise I'd have also assumed it was beyond
amateur instruments. With today's technology, little is beyond our
small scopes it seems. We just can't get their resolution from our
locations and need a lot more exposure time.

The odd twists and kinks in the bright satellite's trail shows you how
bad my seeing was the night I took it. It's sure not straight and I
doubt the satellite is doing the bouncing around! Seeing was much
better the following night but transparency was way down so I imaged a
different Hoag's Object type galaxy that's much brighter. I should have
it ready for posting shortly.

Rick

Stefan Lilge wrote:

Rick, it is "Hoag's galaxy" or PGC 54559. I have to admit that I didn't
know the PGC number ;-)

Great image btw, I somehow thaught this was a "Hubble only" object.

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...

I don't think this one has been posted here before, at least not for
many years. It should be a bit harder to identify. Image scale is
almost exactly 1" of arc per pixel. As a clue it isn't in the IC or NGC
catalogs. I made no attempt to get rid of the two satellites that ran
through two of the luminosity images. One is very faint just west,
right, of the object. Color data is noisy as clouds rolled in cutting
off imaging.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10', RGB=1x10', 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".