Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)
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ngc 5421, astroeyes
ngc 5421
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ngc 5421

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
ngc 5421, astroeyes
ngc 5421
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ngc 5421

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Description

Arp 111/NGC 5421 is a pair of galaxies in eastern Canes Venatici about 360 million light-years away. Halton Arp put it in his category of elliptical or elliptical like galaxies repelling spiral arm of a companion spiral. The arm of the spiral does seem to bend away from the elliptical like galaxy. The atlas notes Arp's comment "E galaxy apparently bending arm at root."

When you look closely, though, the arm itself isn't actually all that bent back. It ends in a huge plume that goes in a different direction from the arm, giving the impression it is bent back. It looks to me as though the plume has stripped most of the stars from out of the arm, probably due to an earlier interaction.

I actually had a lot of trouble getting anything from this data. My set up is not the most mechanically stable and sometimes when I set up the camera it can come in slightly off-axis to the eyepiece tube. Trouble is, I didn't notice anything was amiss till next day, when it was clear there was some mis-alignment. Software is wonderful though and I managed to correct some of it in the processing. Enough to add Arp 111 to my collection of Arp Galaxies!

David.

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ngc 5421, astroeyes