| Description | On the first night of Standard Time observing, I was anxious to capture a few Arp Galaxies in Hercules, which are setting early. Arp 71 has been on my list for a while, so it was first up as soon as I achieved PA. Elevation was below 20° from the start, which makes the target vulnerable to satellite trails. If you look at the comparison shot from the Arp Atlas, developed into a positive (left hand image, believe it or not), the 200" Palomar telescope struggled with this object, so it's no wonder that my 8" Celestron did as well. NGC 6045 might be edge on, but it appears more likely to be an extreme barred spiral (SBc) where the surrounding envelope is simply too dim to show up in this image, and all we can see is the galactic center. Also suprisingly, the "high surface brightness companion" is more obvious in my image than Arp's... a dwarf galaxy hanging off the top of the bar. |
