I imaged this object last year as part of my effort to image the complete
Arp Catalog. At that time, I felt that I needed more integration time to bring out the detail of the tidal streams. Those streams are now more visible in this image.
NGC 7603 and NGC 7306B is a pair of galaxies located in the constellation of Pisces at a declination of 0 degrees. In his Arp catalog, Dr. Arp classified this object into the category of Spiral Galaxies with Elliptical Galaxy Companions on Arms.
NGC 7603 is the spiral galaxy, located about 0.4 billion light years away. This magnitude 14 galaxy spans 1.2 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 140,000 light years. The galaxy’s core is bright, and indeed this is a Seyfert 1 galaxy.
The companion seen above the spiral, at the end of two separate connecting tidal streams, is NGC 7603B. It could be an elliptical but it is hard to tell. It looks like a connected companion and is designated as such by several sources. But the redshift data indicates that it is 0.7 billion light years away, almost twice as far from us. It could be that this pair of galaxies is just a line of sight pair that is lined up "exactly right" by coincidence, and not true companions. But the star stream connections look too natural for me to think that they are not interacting.
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