This
Astrobin Debut Object is a pair of interacting galaxies located in the constellation of Bootes at a declination of +25 degrees. This is a small object in a small FOV - the field radius is 0.098 degrees.
In his
Arp catalog, Dr. Arp classified this object into the category of Galaxies with Narrow Counter-tails.
The bright orange elliptical to the left is the magnitude 17 galaxy MCG+04-35-017. Data shows this galaxy to be about 0.5 billion light years away. It spans 30 arc-seconds in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 90,000 light years.
The distorted spiral to the right is the magnitude 18 galaxy MCG+04-35-016. No distance information is available for this galaxy. I assume that these 2 galaxies are interacting because of the asymmetric star halo around the object, but there is no way to verify this.
The blue galaxy just to the right of Arp 177 is galaxy LEDA 1711277, much more distant at almost 1 billion light years away. This galaxy is similar in apparent size to us as the planet Mercury and is about 50,000 light years in diameter.
It is interesting to see the oval stars in the Arp image. Dr. Arp's notes indicate that seeing was excellent for his image, but tracking must not have been.
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