Description | NGC 5954 and 5953 are pretty small, but bright enough to capture even during a nearly full moon (luckily pointing to a very different part of the sky). They appear to be merging (or at least strongly interacting during a "fly by"). NGC 5954 (left) is an elongated spiral, though it's unclear to me whether the elongation was caused by this interaction or an earlier one. I suspect the latter since the distortion isn't obviously in the direction of its current partner. NGC 5953 (right) is a nearly featureless elliptical galaxy. Arp's remarks, "Broad pec. arm to comp., then absorption: faint extension from comp," accurately describes the connection and suggests they saw one companion. I debated whether there might be two, dwarf galaxies interacting with the primary pair. Both bright objects (SW, lower right, NW, upper right), I continue to interpret as field stars distorted by poor seeing rather than galaxies. |