| Designation(s) | Arp 8, NGC 497 |
| Object Type(s) | Galaxy |
| Relevant Catalog(s) | All (Chron), Arp, NGC |
| Arp Category | Spiral galaxies with split arms |
| Obs. Lat/Long | 42° 17', 073° 57' |
| Constellation | Cetus |
| Date and Time Observed | 2025-01-02 19:58:00 |
| Instrument | EdgeHD 8" w/f7 reducer-1,422mm FL |
| Camera | Player One Apollo-M Mini |
| Image Details | Up is 96.5 degrees E of N. Total integration time was 38m 45s. Exposures 15s@300g, UV/IR Cut Filter. Darks subtracted, no flats. Dithered and recentered in SharpCap. No guiding. |
| Description | A wild, windy night in the Catskills where I needed both SharpCap's brightness filters (to eliminate cloud-obscured images) and FWHM filtering (to eliminate images blurred by wind or periodic error). I managed 38m with the Apollo-M mono-sensor which was enough. The split arms that Arp refers to are presumably the short stubby arms pulled away from the spiral disk in the top left and bottom right of the galaxy disk. These were presumably caused by "fly byes" of smaller galaxies that pulled the arms away from the original spiral, but were not absorbed. In the third gallery image, I've marked several tiny galaxies in the visual vicinity that represent the most obvious candidates. Note that most of the gray splotches in the area could also be galaxies. However, all of these galaxies -- including the 3 marked -- could as easily be distant with no gravitational relationship at all. There are no visible connections such as dust lanes connecting them to NGC 497. |
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