Description | NGC 3448 was discovered by William Herschel in 1789. Impressive when you appreciate he was observing by eye. He did not discover UGC 6016 which is the smudge you can see in the upper part of the image, just right of center, a 17th magnitude dwarf galaxy. NGC 3448 seems to have two nuclei, which is presumably why Arp describes it as depicting "material ejected". That may be, though it seems more likely that this is the result of an incomplete galaxy merger. I find it impressive that despite the full moon, with some processing, I was able to capture not only NGC 6016 but also hints of the dust lanes connecting it to NGC 3448. |