ASTRO: NGC 660 and two others Arp missed

I only was able to capture 3 images in December because of lousy weather
-- clouds. This is my first one and it has enough going on in it for
several images. So hang on for the ride.

NGC 660 is a classic polar ring galaxy located in eastern Pisces near
M74. Its distance seems a bit uncertain. It certainly is close by.
Red shift isn't very reliable at close range like this. It puts it
about 26 million light years distant. NED shows three Tully-Fisher
determinations that put it at 38, 43 and 48 million light years. If the
red shift distance is used the full extent of the galaxy is only about
40 thousand light years, one third the size of our galaxy.

Polar ring galaxies are likely the result of the merger of two galaxies.
Their dust lanes making an X in this case. I had seen several images
of the galaxy, some showing the dust lanes as black but a few showing
them quite red. I figured the red was due to really pushing color
saturation. Nope, it just popped out without any extra processing. Now
I wonder about those that show them as black. Adam Block's Kitt Peak
image is an example
http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/obs.../n660block.jpg Is the red due
to dust reddening alone or is Extended Red Emission involved? I found
nothing on this question. Could it be that O and B stars in the polar
ring give off enough UV light to cause dust in the lanes to glow with ERE?

The galaxy certainly is a starburst galaxy. NED and the NGC project
class it as SB(s)a pec. NED one place it says it is LINER another that
it is a Seyfert 2 galaxy.

In the upper left of my image is UGC 01211. NED classes it as an
Irregular of the Magellan class. Its red shift puts it at 97 million
light years. It appears to be a very low surface brightness galaxy. It
seems awful regular to me for it to be classed as an irregular. Things
get more interesting at the bottom of the image. There you find an
interesting trio of galaxies. I've included them as an insert in the
enlarged cropped image. The left galaxy is 2MASX J01433178+1330492 and
the spindle in the middle is 2MASX J01433857+1331392. Something has
sure altered the face on spiral, 2MASX J01433178+1330492. Note that it
has two arms coming off the south end and extending west and up that run
nearly parallel. The lower is much fainter. So while NGC 660 seems
oddly missed by Arp in his atlas, this one too would seem to belong in
it as well. The spindle is at the same distance. Could it be involved
causing an interaction. Both are just over 700 million light years
distant based on their red shift. The tiny red spherical galaxy at the
north end of the spindle is over twice as distant so not involved.
Further east is yet another galaxy, SDSS J014346.37+133129.8, the the
same distance as the first two. It's another candidate for the one
interacting with the spiral.

There's yet another galaxy that could have been in his atlas. I moved
NGC 660 off center to capture it but it is still right at the eastern
edge where my field is not fully corrected and somewhat vignetted. I
need to redo this one with a lot more time. It is 2MASX
J01441816+1338231 at 1.5 billion light years. It too is an insert in
the cropped image. It has two huge plumes. To even see them at that
great distance indicates this is a huge interaction. I've included SDSS
images of both these fields. It's very close "companion" is just a star
in our galaxy though their color is almost the same there's no
connection between the two. For some reason I can't fathom the SDSS
image picked up the southern plume far better than the northern Yet I
picked them up about equally.

Then it turns out there's a lot of asteroids in the image. This was
taken when the asteroids were just going from normal prograde eastern
motion against the background stars to retrograde western motion. All
but one were still moving east but a couple were virtually stationary.
None are moving very fast. This lack of motion means the trails are
very short but that allows me to see fainter ones than I would normally
see. They are identified on the annotated image. Here's the list with
their magnitudes as estimated by the minor planet center. You may need
to enlarge the image to find some of these. I worked at a 3 times
enlargement.

(156299) 2001 XA11 magnitude 19.4 Closest to NGC 660
(155217) 2005 VH5 magnitude 20.7
2007 EY55 magnitude 21.5 It moved only 2" north and less than
1" east.
(220817) 2004 TX294 magnitude 20.2
2003 SL208 magnitude 20.5
(222030) 1998 SF156 magnitude 20.3
2009 UM78 magnitude 21.2 This one is moving in retrograde.
(48496) 1993 BM3 magnitude 19.1 This one moved 1.3" down and less
than 1" east.
(103135) 1999 XL202 magnitude 19.4

If you look closely at the image you will see several other short
streaks that appear to be asteroids. I checked them on the individual
subs and they were full length on all so are distant edge on galaxies it
would appear. Moving asteroids would only be a fraction of their total
combined length on individual frames making it easy to tell the difference.

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

Abso-frakin-lutly amazing. Great work.

Brian
--
http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism
Seismic FAQ: http://www.skywise711.com/SeismicFAQ/SeismicFAQ.html
Quake "predictions": http://www.skywise711.com/quakes/EQDB/index.html
Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?

One of the better images of NGC 660.


On Sat, 09 Oct 2010 15:58:13 -0500, Rick Johnson
wrote:

I only was able to capture 3 images in December because of lousy weather
-- clouds. This is my first one and it has enough going on in it for
several images. So hang on for the ride.

NGC 660 is a classic polar ring galaxy located in eastern Pisces near
M74. Its distance seems a bit uncertain. It certainly is close by.
Red shift isn't very reliable at close range like this. It puts it
about 26 million light years distant. NED shows three Tully-Fisher
determinations that put it at 38, 43 and 48 million light years. If the
red shift distance is used the full extent of the galaxy is only about
40 thousand light years, one third the size of our galaxy.

Polar ring galaxies are likely the result of the merger of two galaxies.
Their dust lanes making an X in this case. I had seen several images
of the galaxy, some showing the dust lanes as black but a few showing
them quite red. I figured the red was due to really pushing color
saturation. Nope, it just popped out without any extra processing. Now
I wonder about those that show them as black. Adam Block's Kitt Peak
image is an example
http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/obs.../n660block.jpg Is the red due
to dust reddening alone or is Extended Red Emission involved? I found
nothing on this question. Could it be that O and B stars in the polar
ring give off enough UV light to cause dust in the lanes to glow with ERE?

The galaxy certainly is a starburst galaxy. NED and the NGC project
class it as SB(s)a pec. NED one place it says it is LINER another that
it is a Seyfert 2 galaxy.

In the upper left of my image is UGC 01211. NED classes it as an
Irregular of the Magellan class. Its red shift puts it at 97 million
light years. It appears to be a very low surface brightness galaxy. It
seems awful regular to me for it to be classed as an irregular. Things
get more interesting at the bottom of the image. There you find an
interesting trio of galaxies. I've included them as an insert in the
enlarged cropped image. The left galaxy is 2MASX J01433178+1330492 and
the spindle in the middle is 2MASX J01433857+1331392. Something has
sure altered the face on spiral, 2MASX J01433178+1330492. Note that it
has two arms coming off the south end and extending west and up that run
nearly parallel. The lower is much fainter. So while NGC 660 seems
oddly missed by Arp in his atlas, this one too would seem to belong in
it as well. The spindle is at the same distance. Could it be involved
causing an interaction. Both are just over 700 million light years
distant based on their red shift. The tiny red spherical galaxy at the
north end of the spindle is over twice as distant so not involved.
Further east is yet another galaxy, SDSS J014346.37+133129.8, the the
same distance as the first two. It's another candidate for the one
interacting with the spiral.

There's yet another galaxy that could have been in his atlas. I moved
NGC 660 off center to capture it but it is still right at the eastern
edge where my field is not fully corrected and somewhat vignetted. I
need to redo this one with a lot more time. It is 2MASX
J01441816+1338231 at 1.5 billion light years. It too is an insert in
the cropped image. It has two huge plumes. To even see them at that
great distance indicates this is a huge interaction. I've included SDSS
images of both these fields. It's very close "companion" is just a star
in our galaxy though their color is almost the same there's no
connection between the two. For some reason I can't fathom the SDSS
image picked up the southern plume far better than the northern Yet I
picked them up about equally.

Then it turns out there's a lot of asteroids in the image. This was
taken when the asteroids were just going from normal prograde eastern
motion against the background stars to retrograde western motion. All
but one were still moving east but a couple were virtually stationary.
None are moving very fast. This lack of motion means the trails are
very short but that allows me to see fainter ones than I would normally
see. They are identified on the annotated image. Here's the list with
their magnitudes as estimated by the minor planet center. You may need
to enlarge the image to find some of these. I worked at a 3 times
enlargement.

(156299) 2001 XA11 magnitude 19.4 Closest to NGC 660
(155217) 2005 VH5 magnitude 20.7
2007 EY55 magnitude 21.5 It moved only 2" north and less than
1" east.
(220817) 2004 TX294 magnitude 20.2
2003 SL208 magnitude 20.5
(222030) 1998 SF156 magnitude 20.3
2009 UM78 magnitude 21.2 This one is moving in retrograde.
(48496) 1993 BM3 magnitude 19.1 This one moved 1.3" down and less
than 1" east.
(103135) 1999 XL202 magnitude 19.4

If you look closely at the image you will see several other short
streaks that appear to be asteroids. I checked them on the individual
subs and they were full length on all so are distant edge on galaxies it
would appear. Moving asteroids would only be a fraction of their total
combined length on individual frames making it easy to tell the difference.

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

Rick

Rick,

lots of detail in the dust lane and also in all those small galaxies in the
field.

Stefan

"Rick Johnson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
ster.com...
I only was able to capture 3 images in December because of lousy weather
-- clouds. This is my first one and it has enough going on in it for
several images. So hang on for the ride.

NGC 660 is a classic polar ring galaxy located in eastern Pisces near
M74. Its distance seems a bit uncertain. It certainly is close by.
Red shift isn't very reliable at close range like this. It puts it
about 26 million light years distant. NED shows three Tully-Fisher
determinations that put it at 38, 43 and 48 million light years. If the
red shift distance is used the full extent of the galaxy is only about
40 thousand light years, one third the size of our galaxy.

Polar ring galaxies are likely the result of the merger of two galaxies.
Their dust lanes making an X in this case. I had seen several images
of the galaxy, some showing the dust lanes as black but a few showing
them quite red. I figured the red was due to really pushing color
saturation. Nope, it just popped out without any extra processing. Now
I wonder about those that show them as black. Adam Block's Kitt Peak
image is an example
http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/obs.../n660block.jpg Is the red due
to dust reddening alone or is Extended Red Emission involved? I found
nothing on this question. Could it be that O and B stars in the polar
ring give off enough UV light to cause dust in the lanes to glow with ERE?

The galaxy certainly is a starburst galaxy. NED and the NGC project
class it as SB(s)a pec. NED one place it says it is LINER another that
it is a Seyfert 2 galaxy.

In the upper left of my image is UGC 01211. NED classes it as an
Irregular of the Magellan class. Its red shift puts it at 97 million
light years. It appears to be a very low surface brightness galaxy. It
seems awful regular to me for it to be classed as an irregular. Things
get more interesting at the bottom of the image. There you find an
interesting trio of galaxies. I've included them as an insert in the
enlarged cropped image. The left galaxy is 2MASX J01433178+1330492 and
the spindle in the middle is 2MASX J01433857+1331392. Something has
sure altered the face on spiral, 2MASX J01433178+1330492. Note that it
has two arms coming off the south end and extending west and up that run
nearly parallel. The lower is much fainter. So while NGC 660 seems
oddly missed by Arp in his atlas, this one too would seem to belong in
it as well. The spindle is at the same distance. Could it be involved
causing an interaction. Both are just over 700 million light years
distant based on their red shift. The tiny red spherical galaxy at the
north end of the spindle is over twice as distant so not involved.
Further east is yet another galaxy, SDSS J014346.37+133129.8, the the
same distance as the first two. It's another candidate for the one
interacting with the spiral.

There's yet another galaxy that could have been in his atlas. I moved
NGC 660 off center to capture it but it is still right at the eastern
edge where my field is not fully corrected and somewhat vignetted. I
need to redo this one with a lot more time. It is 2MASX
J01441816+1338231 at 1.5 billion light years. It too is an insert in
the cropped image. It has two huge plumes. To even see them at that
great distance indicates this is a huge interaction. I've included SDSS
images of both these fields. It's very close "companion" is just a star
in our galaxy though their color is almost the same there's no
connection between the two. For some reason I can't fathom the SDSS
image picked up the southern plume far better than the northern Yet I
picked them up about equally.

Then it turns out there's a lot of asteroids in the image. This was
taken when the asteroids were just going from normal prograde eastern
motion against the background stars to retrograde western motion. All
but one were still moving east but a couple were virtually stationary.
None are moving very fast. This lack of motion means the trails are
very short but that allows me to see fainter ones than I would normally
see. They are identified on the annotated image. Here's the list with
their magnitudes as estimated by the minor planet center. You may need
to enlarge the image to find some of these. I worked at a 3 times
enlargement.

(156299) 2001 XA11 magnitude 19.4 Closest to NGC 660
(155217) 2005 VH5 magnitude 20.7
2007 EY55 magnitude 21.5 It moved only 2" north and less than
1" east.
(220817) 2004 TX294 magnitude 20.2
2003 SL208 magnitude 20.5
(222030) 1998 SF156 magnitude 20.3
2009 UM78 magnitude 21.2 This one is moving in retrograde.
(48496) 1993 BM3 magnitude 19.1 This one moved 1.3" down and less
than 1" east.
(103135) 1999 XL202 magnitude 19.4

If you look closely at the image you will see several other short
streaks that appear to be asteroids. I checked them on the individual
subs and they were full length on all so are distant edge on galaxies it
would appear. Moving asteroids would only be a fraction of their total
combined length on individual frames making it easy to tell the
difference.

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