Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Hydra (Hya)  ·  Contains:  NGC 3923  ·  PGC 100033  ·  PGC 3097920  ·  PGC 735635  ·  PGC 736187
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NGC 3923, Gary Imm
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NGC 3923

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NGC 3923, Gary Imm
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NGC 3923

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Description

This object is an elliptical shell galaxy of morphological type E4 (in between spherical and flattened). It is located 70 million light years away in the constellation of Hydra at a declination of -29 degrees. This 9.8 magnitude galaxy spans 5 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to an actual diameter of 90,000 light years.

Elliptical galaxies are my least favorite DSO to image. So why did I image this one? This galaxy has been called all of the following:

- The ultimate shell galaxy

- One of the most prominent examples of a shell galaxy

- A galaxy with 42 shells

- The mother of all shell galaxies

So, how could I resist?

It turns out that I didn’t read far enough. Before imaging, I didn’t get to the part which reads “Only a few of the outer shells are visible in the new image from the Hubble and its shells are much more subtle than those of other shell galaxies”.

Looking closely, it is possible to see arcing portions of a few of these shells in the lower right side of the object, along its major axis. It is also possible to see a faint dust patch on the other side of the galaxy, above and left of the core. It is also interesting to me that the bright portion immediately surrounding the core is not an oval shape, but is more of a bowtie shape.

Despite these mildly entertaining features, I am disappointed with this object. Any time the words “Mother of all . . .” are used, my expectations are high.

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