Arp 244 (NGC 4038 & 9, The Antennae)
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Arp 244 is in the
class Appearance of Fission, but there is no Atlas note. This is
one of the classic pairs for showing the effect of galaxy mergers.
The extremely long tidal tails and the multitude of star-forming knots
within the bodies of the main galaxies make this a real showpiece.
The northern galaxy is NGC 4038 and the southern is NGC 4039.
A detail of the central region, to show the star-forming regions, is
included below. This new detail is just a portion of the main
image but the previous detail image, taken using my Celestron CG9 1/4
and Cookbook 245 at the 2003 Texas Star Party, is retained on the Extras
page. About 3' W of NGC 4038 and 4' SSW of the brightest star, you can find a short, broken vertical line. This is the track of asteroid Welzl (15425) on 5/8/08. The breaks are times that passing clouds got so thick I either stopped or lost imaging. My thanks to Chris Randall of the Johnson Space Center club for the identification.
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| 10-inch Newtonian, SBIG ST2000XM, 56 minutes | |
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