Arp 115 triple galaxy

Arp 115/UGC 6678 is a triple galaxy about 440 million-light years
distant located in the very northeast corner of Leo. Arp put it in his
category of elliptical or elliptical like galaxy close to and perturbing
a spiral galaxy. In this case there are two elliptical galaxies and a
very odd spiral. The spiral, UGC 6678 is classed as Sb. I find it
peculiar but it doesn't carry the peculiar designation. Though whether
the two ellipticals have anything to do with it seems debatable. These
three are part of a much larger group at the same distance. Some of
which are in shown in my annotated image. Others extend north and south
out of my image.

UGC 6678 may have grown due to chowing down on many dwarf galaxies in
the group resulting in its current somewhat odd shape. Or it might be
due to interaction with some of the others in the group. The one to the
northwest seen in the enlarged cropped image as well as the Sloan image
is a possibility as it is rather peculiar itself. It is KUG 1140+266.
Neither "elliptical" seems the least distorted. They haven't even
distorted each other though appear on top of one another. Arp's comment
on the pair of ellipticals reads: "Object slightly S of northern gal. is
just perceptibly nonstellar. This would indicate it wasn't cataloged at
the time of Arp's catalog. The small one is classed as S0 rather than
elliptical which appears reasonable to me. NED doesn't classify the
larger galaxy. Looks more like a barred spiral to me than an
elliptical. That isn't seen in Arp's image however. It is also known
as PGC 036379 and several other designations. The small S0 however has
no separate designation other than that of one of the other two and a
secondary letter or other designation.

In the annotated image you will note several families of galaxies
inhabit the field. The largest group is that of Arp 115 but others
reside at 1 billion light-years at the top center, 1.7 to 1.8 billion
light-years across the field and 1.3 to 1.4 across the field. Only a
handful don't fit one of these groups. There is one galaxy cluster
whose position match that of a galaxy. The cluster, MaxBCG
J175.78981+26.45578, is said to be 3.3 billion light-years distant and
contains 14 galaxies across an unknown radius. One possible member is
south of it right beside a second, slightly brighter galaxy. Oddly the
brighter one not only has no red shift data, it isn't in NED at all!
Usually it is rather large, low surface brightness, blue spirals that
get this disrespect but this time its a tiny dim reddened galaxy of
indeterminable type.

You've probably noticed the right side of the image is out of focus.
This is another image taken when the camera's set screws had worked
loose. Most nights it would hold position but on warmer nights it would
fall away on one side causing this problem. Likely a few more of these
as I didn't catch the problem for some time. I have to look at the data
soon after it is taken rather than months later.

Arp's image
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level...ig_arp115.jpeg

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

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".