| Description | Captured on a dark night but where clouds closed in and forced me to shut down early. Seeing was poor, and stars exhibited distorted shapes. Nevertheless, you can see clearly the pair of interacting spiral galaxies with one (6621) exhibiting a long arm separated from the spiral and connecting to the smaller one (6622), especially in the inverted image. The two certainly appear to be in the process of merging, and I would love to see a simulation of the relative motion which created the long, wrap-around separation of the arm. The bright, elongated object to the right of the arm-tip I take to be a distorted field star not a galaxy. Arp's remarks are "Companion resembles M 51 companion", which suggests a singular, large companion and confirms my field-star interpretation. |
