| Description | Reviewing this before submission to the AL in Feb 2025, a year after the original capture,, I feel the same about this target as I do Arp 141: this is as likely to be a merger as a showing "emanating material". As part of this "rethinking", I created the inverted monochrome image from my original OSC capture, which depicts things much more clearly in combination with the positive. The galactic center of the elliptical galaxy is obviously the large, medium-bright object just left of image center (the three stars in a line are lower in the image and point to it). All of the other bright objects are imo field stars, EXCEPT the medium bright object which forms the upper vertex of a triangle in combination with the two brightest field stars. If you look at my inverted image, it's the smallest of the three. If believe this could be the center of a spiral galaxy being absorbed into the Elliptical rather than emanating from it. This capture took place despite an 88% moon. I was determined to capture a number of Arp galaxies in Andromeda, recognizing the window of opportunity in Feb 2024 was short. This was the second observation of the evening, and the target was fairly low in the west. I captured as much data as I could until I judged the thicker atmosphere and glow at the horizon would render further integration useless. |
