NGC 3227/26  -  Arp 94


Full resolution (1600x1200 px  500kB)

150% resolution (780kB)

Object identification (550kB)

Inverted image showing the tidal tails (680kB)

Crop with 300% resolution showing J1023+1952 (166kB)

DSLR widefield image


Object data of NGC3227

Object type: galaxy (SBa)
Size: 5.4' x 3.6'
Magnitude: 11.1 mag
Constellation: Leo
Distance: 66 Mio Ly
   
Notes: NGC 3227 is a spiral galaxy that is interacting with the dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 3226. This interacting system is listed as Arp94 in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies and as Holm187 in the Holmberg Catalogue of Double and Multiple Galaxies.

Arp94 is situated 50' east of the bright star Gamma Leonis (Algieba), which causes the rays coming from the right side in the above image.

The interaction between the two galaxies has formed very interesting structures: a looping tidal tail to the north and a very faint tidal tail to the south, which can be seen more clearly in the inverted image.

CGCG 94-22 is another interacting system to the right of NGC3227 showing also a tidal tail. This system is much more distant (500 Mio Ly compared to 66 Mio Ly of NGC3227).

Mundell et al (2004) analyzed a very interesting tidal dwarf candidate (J1023+1952) in the NGC 3227/26 system. They discovered active star formation in the HI cloud associated with NGC3227/26. The blue knots, which are visible in the above image and which are better visible in the 300% crop image are clear signs of this ongoing star formation.

 


Exposure data

Date: 2011-02-05+07+09+23+25+26+28 + 2011-03-01+04+07+08+11+29+30
Location: Nussbach / Austria (400m)
Telescope: 12" Newtonian telescope (f=1120mm)
Camera: ST2000XM with CFW8 and Baader Filters
Binning: L 1x1 / RGB 1x1
Exposure time: L 96x12m / R 21x12m / G 21x12m / B 21x12m
Exposure time total: 31h 48m

 

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