ASTRO: NGC 4173 et al ("The box")

Another one from April. April was OK for astronomy, but among quite a lot of
"clear" nights there was a considerable percentage of partly clouded nights
or nights with bad transparency. Nights that were completely clear from
start to finish were rare this year.

"The box" is a nice galaxy group in Coma, of which the three smaller members
seem to be a physical group as they are all 170 million lightyears from us
according to Guide9. The large one (NGC 4173) is given at 53 million
lightyears, so it's larger size is because of a smaller distance.

Taken from Berlin with a 10" Meade ACF at f/8 on a G11 mount, Trius SX 694
camera, 40x5min L, 18x5min each for RGB, all binned 2x2.

Stefan

This field has been on my list for some time but weather shuts me down every time. 4174 is thought to be a polar ring galaxy but its faint. I don't see it in the very few frames that survived but conditions were awful those nights. Maybe next year -- I've said that for 8 years now.

4173 also made my list as a flat galaxy, FGC 1382

The group made it as Hickson 61. Apparently making the list 3 ways has put a severe weather jinx on it.

At least your weather allowed some data on it. That's better than I've had.

Rick

Originally Posted by Stefan Lilge

Another one from April. April was OK for astronomy, but among quite a lot of
"clear" nights there was a considerable percentage of partly clouded nights
or nights with bad transparency. Nights that were completely clear from
start to finish were rare this year.

"The box" is a nice galaxy group in Coma, of which the three smaller members
seem to be a physical group as they are all 170 million lightyears from us
according to Guide9. The large one (NGC 4173) is given at 53 million
lightyears, so it's larger size is because of a smaller distance.

Taken from Berlin with a 10" Meade ACF at f/8 on a G11 mount, Trius SX 694
camera, 40x5min L, 18x5min each for RGB, all binned 2x2.

Stefan