VV 788 (7Zw466) - fascinating and "easy" ring galaxy

[Uwe Glahn]

I know there are some "ring galaxy lovers" in this forum - I found a (for me) new spectacular object.

Last new moon I pointed my 27" to VV 788, 4,4' north of NGC 4513. With 586x, the ring VV 788 showed an easy ring character with 2-3 stellar peaks within the galaxy. Next to the ring some other galaxies were seen and showed a nice small galaxy group.

Because the ring was "relative" easy to see I think I could be an object for smaller aperture, maybe 20"? under good transparency.

144
SDSS

145
sketch with 27" (home with inverted version (http://www.deepsky-visuell.de/Zeichnungen/VV788.htm))

[FaintFuzzies]

Good observation, Uwe.

This is my observation with the 22" reflector under NELM 6.5 skies. (Just copied/pasted from my site)

22” at 306, 383 and 460x – This is one of my favorite ring galaxy groups. The ring galaxy, CGCG 315-43, is a faint even surface brightness glow with hints of brightening at the edges suggesting a ring. Two of three companions detected as very faint glows. The first companion, CGCG 315-44, is round and very faint. 0.2’ across. The other one, CGCG 315-43, is a 2:1 elongated glow. PA = 120 and 0.3’ long.

And 48" observation
48” (813x) – The ring was uneven. The west side was brighter and knotty. The east side was slightly dimmer with two “missing” parts. Actually the missing parts are much dimmer than the rest of the ring. Three other galaxies to the east of the ring were easily detected. CGCG 315-44, the middle one was the brightest of the three, followed by CGCG 315-43. MAC 1232+6624 was the dimmest and smallest.

[Steve Gottlieb]

I'll throw in my 48" observation, though it doesn't add any more details than reported by Uwe with his 27". His sketch really captures the visual detail well!

48" (4/4/11): this collisional ring galaxy appeared as a fairly faint, small, round glow with a slightly brighter rim and darker center. The ring was irregular lit, brighter on the west side with a couple of slightly brighter knots north and south. There are three nearby companions.

PGC 3441759, situated 35" ENE, is the faintest in the trio and probably in the background of the other three galaxies. At 488x it appeared very faint, extremely small, round, 6" diameter. VII Zw 467 at 50" ESE is fairly faint, small, round, high surface brightness. This galaxy is assumed to be the collider, though PGC 2686685 at 1.1' SE has also been proposed. PGC 2686685 appeared faint, small, elongated 2:1 NW-SE, 20"x10".

[Jimi Lowrey]

Uwe,

You're sketch is awesome

This is also one of my favorite ring galaxies. I have viewed it many times and revisit it each spring.

[Uwe Glahn]

Alvin, Steve, Jimi,

thanks for the response. The details in the sketch were drawn a little bit brighter than in the eyepiece to show what was been seen. The first impression in the eyepiece showed a faint round glow. With averted vision the ring could be detected as better defined edges completely around the glow. I noticed, that the brightest part of the ring was to the S, following knots to the E and W. The N side was the faintest edge part.
The faintest companion which I could pick up was PGC 3441759, 35" NE of the ring.

A second ring this night was UGC5936 (http://www.deepsky-visuell.de/Zeichnungen/UGC5936.htm) but not so fascinating like the VV 788 ring.

Jimi, what impression of IC 298 (Arp 147) do you have in comparison with VV 788? Is the ring much more difficult? With 27" I did not observed it yet but will give it a try.

[Jimi Lowrey]

Uwe,

7 ZW 466 is much easer than Arp 147. 7 ZW 466 is the best of the smoke ring type galaxies that I have seen to date.

I remember a night on the 82" at McDonald when Arp 147 had incredible detail Big Jim Chandler was there also that night.

[Jim Chandler]

Sept. 7, 2007. We had some seeing that night! That was the same night that Maffei I actually looked like a galaxy, and Steve Odewahn pointed the 82" down low so we could look at the Cartwheel.

[Dragan]

7zw466 was another object I was able to view last month in the 48" and was on my list for the 25".

With my 8Ethos I was able to find a nearby small v shaped asterism of stars consisting of approximately 14th & 15th magnitude stars. Following one arms of the V, i panned down to find several small glows. My 7(and the 6 at times) ortho provided the best view of the trio of galaxies centered on CGCG 315-44 but I was never able to confidently define the ring shape. I'll have to revisit......

[Marko]

Last night using a 33.4" f/5 dob with best view at 471x I was able to enjoy a view of this ring galaxy along with the 2 close by less unusual CGCG members of the elongated CGCG 315-43 and the 'fuzzy star' of CGCG 315-44 being the brightest and most obvious of the treo.

The ring galaxy, CGCG 315-43, appeared similar to a 'donut' planetary nebula with non distinct edges. Averted clearly made for a view where the center was darker than the surroundings. No core or brightening was seen in the center of the object. I sometimes call donut planetaries by the fraction the hole takes up of the whole diameter. I judged this as about a 1/3 hole but the edges were non distinct in my view so I am not entirely sure that measurement is much more than a general feel.

I made no attempt to try for this in my 18" which was yielding other wonderful views on this night of 21.65 SQM readings and about NELM 6.7. By the time I had viewed this galaxy around 2:30am the seeing had gotten 5/5. A great sky to be sure.

[akarsh]

Hello,

Incidentally, NGC 4513 itself is a ring galaxy. I didn't see it discussed in either this post or here -- http://www.deepskyforum.com/showthread.php?544-Object-of-the-Week-March-30-2014-%96-VV-788&highlight=4513
The ring feature of NGC 4513 is seen in POSS II images easily and is extremely vaguely visible on POSS I blue plate. This usually means, in my understanding, that Jimi probably has a chance of seeing it in his 48". Has anyone tried for / observed this ring? I was just curious.

Here's another link from Courtney Seligman's page: http://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ngc45.htm#4513

Clear Skies!

Regards
Akarsh