ASTRO: Abell 2147 and Arp 324

Arp 324 is a chain of galaxies in a western corner of Hercules right on
the border with Serpens Caput. It is located in the corner I call the
realm of Abell galaxy clusters. As there's a line of 3 them with Abell
2147 at the south end. 2152 and 2151 are the other two, 2151 is the
famous Hercules Galaxy Cluster. In fact Arp 324 is almost at the center
of 2147 cluster which is about 475 million light years distant. Arp put
Arp 324 in his Group character: Chain of galaxies category. How many he
saw in the chain I don't know. Some sources say 6 some 9. Arp's
comment on the group: "Diffuse elongation of E's along line joining
them." I think he is referring to the two main ellipticals which seem
to exist in one diffuse, very elongated halo. Whether this is real or a
line of sight illusion I don't know. I found nothing on this question.
In any case such elongated halos are a pretty good sign that these halos
are tidal in nature. Not easy to pull stars from such massive
elliptical galaxies so I assume it was these two interacting that caused
these tidal features. The northern galaxy is classed as cD:E+ galaxies
which is a rare type of extremely large elliptical galaxy usually found
to be anchoring a galaxy cluster, which is exactly what it is doing. It
is known as UGC 10143. The smaller southern one is UGC 10143 Notes 2 or
MCG +03-41-051 and is classed simply as an E3 galaxy.

I really doubt this is a true galaxy chain but more a line of sight
apparent chain of random galaxies in the cluster. Some of which, like
the two big ellipticals and III Zw 075 below are interacting pairs.

Between the two main elliptical galaxy is a "cute" ring spiral galaxy
with two fine arms coming off the ring. It is UGC 10143 NOTES01 or MCG
+03-41-052. It is a puzzle to me. Everyone considers it part of the
chain. Here's a typical comment on it: "Compact red object with a faint
envelope. This is a component of a chain (connected by a luminous band)
of which the compact galaxy III Zw 075 is also a member." By red they
mean infrared which I don't pick up. So it is more blue white in my
image. The problem is its red shift is considerably greater than that
of the others putting it about 600 million light-years from us, 125
million further than the Abell Cluster that contains Arp 324. Sometimes
a galaxy can pick up high speed due to the gravitational interaction
with its cluster neighbors. That may explain it or it may not be a
member of the group. I'm leaning toward the latter. It is quite
obviously classed as SAB(r)ab.

III Zw 075 is the pair of elliptical galaxies below the ring spiral that
are only 6" apart. I don't know why the note above implied it was a
single galaxy. They appear to be a pair of interacting compact dwarf
spherical galaxies in the Abell cluster. They seem to exist in a common
envelope of stars though this may be an illusion. I find no redshift
data on this pair.

At the bottom of the "chain" is a flat edge on spiral. It is UGC 10143
NOTES03 or KUG 1559+160. It is nearly impossible to find a catalog that
includes all of these. Several include most however. Like the ring
spiral its red shift is a bit out of line with the Abell cluster. In
this case it is about 75 million light-years closer by its red shift
than Abell 2147. Since most cluster galaxies are elliptical I'm leaning
toward this one not being a member as well.

Another spiral like galaxy "in the chain" is 2MASX J16021582+1557252.
It is between the upper large elliptical and the ring spiral. It's
northern arm seems far bigger and brighter than the southern. It might
be two superimposed galaxies though NED and SDSS only list the one at in
this immediate area. It, like the other spirals has a red shift that
doesn't fit the two main ellipticals for Abell 2147. It is about 100
million miles beyond them based on its red shift.

This covers the basic 6 galaxies in the "chain". While other sources
list more I'm unable to identify them with any certainty. Some are
listed by their MAC entry. The only listing of this catalog I have is
accurate only to about 1 minute of arc in Declination and 15" in RA.
Another PGC 56783 is non existent in all of my sources. As best as I
can determine at least two of these are referring to the little
interacting trio of galaxies above the two major ellipticals and a bit
west. From south to north they are SDSS J160214.00+160111.2, SDSS
J160213.92+160127.2 and SDSS J160214.72+160127.5. Redshift data shows
the first two are members of the Abell 2147 cluster. I have no data on
the third member, it appears to be involved with the halo so probably is
also a true member of the cluster.

Other nearby likely members of the cluster are SDSS J160211.40+160021.5
down and right of the trio above (the two leftmost galaxies point to
it), SDSS J160215.30+160220.1 fainter and above the triplet and beside a
dim blue star, SDSS J160217.58+160010.6 a bright elliptical at the top
of the halo about the northern main dC elliptical and SDSS
J160217.96+160027.9 the faint round galaxy just above the last galaxy.
Continuing north along the same line as the last two but further north
than the triplet is the rather bright elliptical member of the cluster
and maybe Arp's chain, SDSS J160219.55+160209.6. Most of the other
ellipticals in the image appear to be members of the cluster as well.
Though a few are far beyond the cluster yet are as big and bright as
cluster members.

If you've been following my posts I've been noticing the SDSS often
missed very blue galaxies. So the extremely blue galaxy west of Arp 324
caught my eye. It seems an exception because it was picked up by the
SDSS as SDSS J160154.20+160016.7 and has a red shift that puts it in the
Abell cluster. So not all of these super blue galaxies are not picked up.

Down near the bottom left of center is a very weird galaxy with a red
shift of 510 million light-years and thus likely a cluster member. It is
right beside a rather bright blue star to its east. It is classed as S0
but seems to have a very odd blue ring around it. NED's primary listing
for it is GIN 464. Blow up the image to see the ring detail.

Trying to do a typical annotated version of this image is virtually
impossible. I'd have labels on top of labels making a mess and taking
me far more time than I have available. So I've just pointed out a few
objects, not members of Arp 324 or Abell 2147 that caught my eye.
Objects like SDSS J160143.48+155706.3, a quasar at 12 billion light
years shining at magnitude 21.3. A question mark indicates a galaxy not
in NED that I think should be as far dimmer galaxies are included.

For those who have been asking the limiting magnitude of this image
isn't as deep as I'd have liked, humidity cut down transparency. It is
about magnitude 22 for tiny compact galaxies, 22.3 for stars and about
21.8 for fuzzy galaxies. All these are measured in green light.

Link to the SDSS image is flaky for me so I've attached it.

Arp's image:
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level...ig_arp324.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=6x10', 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".

Rick,

the consistent quality of your images is amazing. The small spiral in the
lower part of the image shows how good the resolution of this image is.

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
. com...
Arp 324 is a chain of galaxies in a western corner of Hercules right on
the border with Serpens Caput. It is located in the corner I call the
realm of Abell galaxy clusters. As there's a line of 3 them with Abell
2147 at the south end. 2152 and 2151 are the other two, 2151 is the
famous Hercules Galaxy Cluster. In fact Arp 324 is almost at the center
of 2147 cluster which is about 475 million light years distant. Arp put
Arp 324 in his Group character: Chain of galaxies category. How many he
saw in the chain I don't know. Some sources say 6 some 9. Arp's
comment on the group: "Diffuse elongation of E's along line joining
them." I think he is referring to the two main ellipticals which seem
to exist in one diffuse, very elongated halo. Whether this is real or a
line of sight illusion I don't know. I found nothing on this question.
In any case such elongated halos are a pretty good sign that these halos
are tidal in nature. Not easy to pull stars from such massive
elliptical galaxies so I assume it was these two interacting that caused
these tidal features. The northern galaxy is classed as cD:E+ galaxies
which is a rare type of extremely large elliptical galaxy usually found
to be anchoring a galaxy cluster, which is exactly what it is doing. It
is known as UGC 10143. The smaller southern one is UGC 10143 Notes 2 or
MCG +03-41-051 and is classed simply as an E3 galaxy.

I really doubt this is a true galaxy chain but more a line of sight
apparent chain of random galaxies in the cluster. Some of which, like
the two big ellipticals and III Zw 075 below are interacting pairs.

Between the two main elliptical galaxy is a "cute" ring spiral galaxy
with two fine arms coming off the ring. It is UGC 10143 NOTES01 or MCG
+03-41-052. It is a puzzle to me. Everyone considers it part of the
chain. Here's a typical comment on it: "Compact red object with a faint
envelope. This is a component of a chain (connected by a luminous band)
of which the compact galaxy III Zw 075 is also a member." By red they
mean infrared which I don't pick up. So it is more blue white in my
image. The problem is its red shift is considerably greater than that
of the others putting it about 600 million light-years from us, 125
million further than the Abell Cluster that contains Arp 324. Sometimes
a galaxy can pick up high speed due to the gravitational interaction
with its cluster neighbors. That may explain it or it may not be a
member of the group. I'm leaning toward the latter. It is quite
obviously classed as SAB(r)ab.

III Zw 075 is the pair of elliptical galaxies below the ring spiral that
are only 6" apart. I don't know why the note above implied it was a
single galaxy. They appear to be a pair of interacting compact dwarf
spherical galaxies in the Abell cluster. They seem to exist in a common
envelope of stars though this may be an illusion. I find no redshift
data on this pair.

At the bottom of the "chain" is a flat edge on spiral. It is UGC 10143
NOTES03 or KUG 1559+160. It is nearly impossible to find a catalog that
includes all of these. Several include most however. Like the ring
spiral its red shift is a bit out of line with the Abell cluster. In
this case it is about 75 million light-years closer by its red shift
than Abell 2147. Since most cluster galaxies are elliptical I'm leaning
toward this one not being a member as well.

Another spiral like galaxy "in the chain" is 2MASX J16021582+1557252.
It is between the upper large elliptical and the ring spiral. It's
northern arm seems far bigger and brighter than the southern. It might
be two superimposed galaxies though NED and SDSS only list the one at in
this immediate area. It, like the other spirals has a red shift that
doesn't fit the two main ellipticals for Abell 2147. It is about 100
million miles beyond them based on its red shift.

This covers the basic 6 galaxies in the "chain". While other sources
list more I'm unable to identify them with any certainty. Some are
listed by their MAC entry. The only listing of this catalog I have is
accurate only to about 1 minute of arc in Declination and 15" in RA.
Another PGC 56783 is non existent in all of my sources. As best as I
can determine at least two of these are referring to the little
interacting trio of galaxies above the two major ellipticals and a bit
west. From south to north they are SDSS J160214.00+160111.2, SDSS
J160213.92+160127.2 and SDSS J160214.72+160127.5. Redshift data shows
the first two are members of the Abell 2147 cluster. I have no data on
the third member, it appears to be involved with the halo so probably is
also a true member of the cluster.

Other nearby likely members of the cluster are SDSS J160211.40+160021.5
down and right of the trio above (the two leftmost galaxies point to
it), SDSS J160215.30+160220.1 fainter and above the triplet and beside a
dim blue star, SDSS J160217.58+160010.6 a bright elliptical at the top
of the halo about the northern main dC elliptical and SDSS
J160217.96+160027.9 the faint round galaxy just above the last galaxy.
Continuing north along the same line as the last two but further north
than the triplet is the rather bright elliptical member of the cluster
and maybe Arp's chain, SDSS J160219.55+160209.6. Most of the other
ellipticals in the image appear to be members of the cluster as well.
Though a few are far beyond the cluster yet are as big and bright as
cluster members.

If you've been following my posts I've been noticing the SDSS often
missed very blue galaxies. So the extremely blue galaxy west of Arp 324
caught my eye. It seems an exception because it was picked up by the
SDSS as SDSS J160154.20+160016.7 and has a red shift that puts it in the
Abell cluster. So not all of these super blue galaxies are not picked up.

Down near the bottom left of center is a very weird galaxy with a red
shift of 510 million light-years and thus likely a cluster member. It is
right beside a rather bright blue star to its east. It is classed as S0
but seems to have a very odd blue ring around it. NED's primary listing
for it is GIN 464. Blow up the image to see the ring detail.

Trying to do a typical annotated version of this image is virtually
impossible. I'd have labels on top of labels making a mess and taking
me far more time than I have available. So I've just pointed out a few
objects, not members of Arp 324 or Abell 2147 that caught my eye.
Objects like SDSS J160143.48+155706.3, a quasar at 12 billion light
years shining at magnitude 21.3. A question mark indicates a galaxy not
in NED that I think should be as far dimmer galaxies are included.

For those who have been asking the limiting magnitude of this image
isn't as deep as I'd have liked, humidity cut down transparency. It is
about magnitude 22 for tiny compact galaxies, 22.3 for stars and about
21.8 for fuzzy galaxies. All these are measured in green light.

Link to the SDSS image is flaky for me so I've attached it.

Arp's image:
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level...ig_arp324.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=6x10', 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".

The seeing was in a groove this summer. This image dates to July 20th.
Far better than it has been since I built the observatory but about
what it was when I checked the seeing before buying the lot. Not sure
which is "normal".

Since September seeing dropped some and clouds are rarely absent. This
has really cut into my imaging and I'm really out of practice. Had one
clear night a few weeks back (This new moon is totally clouded out so
far) and boy did I screw up. The rust was showing something awful.
Forgot to turn on the fan so lost temperature regulation as the heat
built up and wasn't exhausted. I'll have to scale my darks and see if I
can salvage something but temp wasn't stable so I suspect that will be
only sort of successful. Screwed up in other ways as well. Forgot to
turn on temperature compensation for the focuser for instance.

Rick

Stefan Lilge wrote:
Rick,

the consistent quality of your images is amazing. The small spiral in the
lower part of the image shows how good the resolution of this image is.

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
. com...
Arp 324 is a chain of galaxies in a western corner of Hercules right on
the border with Serpens Caput. It is located in the corner I call the
realm of Abell galaxy clusters. As there's a line of 3 them with Abell
2147 at the south end. 2152 and 2151 are the other two, 2151 is the
famous Hercules Galaxy Cluster. In fact Arp 324 is almost at the center
of 2147 cluster which is about 475 million light years distant. Arp put
Arp 324 in his Group character: Chain of galaxies category. How many he
saw in the chain I don't know. Some sources say 6 some 9. Arp's
comment on the group: "Diffuse elongation of E's along line joining
them." I think he is referring to the two main ellipticals which seem
to exist in one diffuse, very elongated halo. Whether this is real or a
line of sight illusion I don't know. I found nothing on this question.
In any case such elongated halos are a pretty good sign that these halos
are tidal in nature. Not easy to pull stars from such massive
elliptical galaxies so I assume it was these two interacting that caused
these tidal features. The northern galaxy is classed as cD:E+ galaxies
which is a rare type of extremely large elliptical galaxy usually found
to be anchoring a galaxy cluster, which is exactly what it is doing. It
is known as UGC 10143. The smaller southern one is UGC 10143 Notes 2 or
MCG +03-41-051 and is classed simply as an E3 galaxy.

I really doubt this is a true galaxy chain but more a line of sight
apparent chain of random galaxies in the cluster. Some of which, like
the two big ellipticals and III Zw 075 below are interacting pairs.

Between the two main elliptical galaxy is a "cute" ring spiral galaxy
with two fine arms coming off the ring. It is UGC 10143 NOTES01 or MCG
+03-41-052. It is a puzzle to me. Everyone considers it part of the
chain. Here's a typical comment on it: "Compact red object with a faint
envelope. This is a component of a chain (connected by a luminous band)
of which the compact galaxy III Zw 075 is also a member." By red they
mean infrared which I don't pick up. So it is more blue white in my
image. The problem is its red shift is considerably greater than that
of the others putting it about 600 million light-years from us, 125
million further than the Abell Cluster that contains Arp 324. Sometimes
a galaxy can pick up high speed due to the gravitational interaction
with its cluster neighbors. That may explain it or it may not be a
member of the group. I'm leaning toward the latter. It is quite
obviously classed as SAB(r)ab.

III Zw 075 is the pair of elliptical galaxies below the ring spiral that
are only 6" apart. I don't know why the note above implied it was a
single galaxy. They appear to be a pair of interacting compact dwarf
spherical galaxies in the Abell cluster. They seem to exist in a common
envelope of stars though this may be an illusion. I find no redshift
data on this pair.

At the bottom of the "chain" is a flat edge on spiral. It is UGC 10143
NOTES03 or KUG 1559+160. It is nearly impossible to find a catalog that
includes all of these. Several include most however. Like the ring
spiral its red shift is a bit out of line with the Abell cluster. In
this case it is about 75 million light-years closer by its red shift
than Abell 2147. Since most cluster galaxies are elliptical I'm leaning
toward this one not being a member as well.

Another spiral like galaxy "in the chain" is 2MASX J16021582+1557252.
It is between the upper large elliptical and the ring spiral. It's
northern arm seems far bigger and brighter than the southern. It might
be two superimposed galaxies though NED and SDSS only list the one at in
this immediate area. It, like the other spirals has a red shift that
doesn't fit the two main ellipticals for Abell 2147. It is about 100
million miles beyond them based on its red shift.

This covers the basic 6 galaxies in the "chain". While other sources
list more I'm unable to identify them with any certainty. Some are
listed by their MAC entry. The only listing of this catalog I have is
accurate only to about 1 minute of arc in Declination and 15" in RA.
Another PGC 56783 is non existent in all of my sources. As best as I
can determine at least two of these are referring to the little
interacting trio of galaxies above the two major ellipticals and a bit
west. From south to north they are SDSS J160214.00+160111.2, SDSS
J160213.92+160127.2 and SDSS J160214.72+160127.5. Redshift data shows
the first two are members of the Abell 2147 cluster. I have no data on
the third member, it appears to be involved with the halo so probably is
also a true member of the cluster.

Other nearby likely members of the cluster are SDSS J160211.40+160021.5
down and right of the trio above (the two leftmost galaxies point to
it), SDSS J160215.30+160220.1 fainter and above the triplet and beside a
dim blue star, SDSS J160217.58+160010.6 a bright elliptical at the top
of the halo about the northern main dC elliptical and SDSS
J160217.96+160027.9 the faint round galaxy just above the last galaxy.
Continuing north along the same line as the last two but further north
than the triplet is the rather bright elliptical member of the cluster
and maybe Arp's chain, SDSS J160219.55+160209.6. Most of the other
ellipticals in the image appear to be members of the cluster as well.
Though a few are far beyond the cluster yet are as big and bright as
cluster members.

If you've been following my posts I've been noticing the SDSS often
missed very blue galaxies. So the extremely blue galaxy west of Arp 324
caught my eye. It seems an exception because it was picked up by the
SDSS as SDSS J160154.20+160016.7 and has a red shift that puts it in the
Abell cluster. So not all of these super blue galaxies are not picked up.

Down near the bottom left of center is a very weird galaxy with a red
shift of 510 million light-years and thus likely a cluster member. It is
right beside a rather bright blue star to its east. It is classed as S0
but seems to have a very odd blue ring around it. NED's primary listing
for it is GIN 464. Blow up the image to see the ring detail.

Trying to do a typical annotated version of this image is virtually
impossible. I'd have labels on top of labels making a mess and taking
me far more time than I have available. So I've just pointed out a few
objects, not members of Arp 324 or Abell 2147 that caught my eye.
Objects like SDSS J160143.48+155706.3, a quasar at 12 billion light
years shining at magnitude 21.3. A question mark indicates a galaxy not
in NED that I think should be as far dimmer galaxies are included.

For those who have been asking the limiting magnitude of this image
isn't as deep as I'd have liked, humidity cut down transparency. It is
about magnitude 22 for tiny compact galaxies, 22.3 for stars and about
21.8 for fuzzy galaxies. All these are measured in green light.

Link to the SDSS image is flaky for me so I've attached it.

Arp's image:
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level...ig_arp324.jpeg

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=6x10', 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".