Object of the Week December 9, 2012 ARP 123 and Edge On Friends

[Jimi Lowrey]

ARP 123 (NGC 1888 & NGC 1889)

Lepus

RA
05 22 34

DEC
-11 29 58

NGC 1888
Type SB Pec
Mag 12.83

NGC 1889
Type E-PEC
Mag 14.1

Arp classified this pair "Elliptical close to and perturbing spirals" in his Atlas of peculiar galaxies. This pair of high surface brightness galaxies look great in most scopes and if you are a fan of edge on galaxies you are going to like this OOTW

This image is from the Arp catalog.
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There is much faint detail you can pull out of this interacting pair. On nights of good seeing I have seen a faint dust lane running across the mottled NGC 1888. Also on the South East end of NGC 1888 there is a bend or kink in the galaxy to look for ,I would like to hear from those who have seen this bend. NGC 1889 the E galaxy looks to me like a bright compact fuzzy glow that looks like to quote Alvin Huey "That it looks like it has jumped out of NGC 1888" Let me know if it looks like that to you!

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10.8' East North East of Arp 123 is the 14.4 Mag S0 edge on galaxy MCG -2-14-15 Be sure to check it out when you have finished viewing Arp123. Also if you are up to a real challenge 6.9' North East of MCG -2-14-15 is the 16.5 Mag edge on 2MASX j05234125-1123160 AKA (Mac 0523-1123) its fairly small.

This Image is of the three edge on in a row.
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Hope you will try these interesting line of edge on galaxies next time you are out and,

"GIVE IT A GO AND LET US KNOW"

GOOD LUCK AND GREAT VIEWING!

[Uwe Glahn]

Cool object. My favorite galaxy pair in Orion :)

You are right, it looks really funny with only a tiny space between both galaxies.

I remember the pair as a relative small and surface bright group.

Could you detect the buckling of NGC 1888 at the SE edge Jimi?

My sketch is with my old 16" with 360x under NELM 6m5+ skies
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[Howard B]

Arp 123 is a real nice one and takes magnification well. I've only observed it once a couple years as the final object of the night under a 21.26 SQM sky. My notes read:

"Now this is an ARP! NGC 1888 is the edge on and 1889 is the star-like point right next to 1888's core. How cool is that?! I can detect the slight curve to one end of 1888's edge on shape making this a wonderful peculiar pair. 1:49am, 253x, 21.26 SQM."

My quick sketch shows the slight curve as well as how cold my fingers must have been - this isn't my best sketch, that's for sure! I haven't tried for the three nearby edge on galaxies but next time I can get under a winter sky I'll check them out.
388

[RolandosCY]

Wonderful object! I enjoyed it under 21.04 skies on Tuesday evening. In my 18" it was easier than I expected, and took my quite by surprise. NGC 1888 is quite thin, brighter in the middle 1/3, and I found it thinner than I expected. The southern tip of the galaxy seemed to be almost pointing towards the bright star near the south edge of the field, albeit at a slight angle. At the eyepiece, although I did note this, I thought that this might be a visual effect, but after returning home and checking the above comments it seems that I did notice the slight curvature of the galaxy's edge! NGC 1889 was also much brighter than expected, appearing like a tiny round ball of light with a very bright nucleus. What was quite interesting was the fact that the space between them appeared practically empty, like a needle thin black void!

After spending time at the eyepiece and sketching the pair, I tried to detect MCG -2-14-15, but it was nowhere to be seen. I checked and re-checked the position but I failed. I moved on to the galaxy NGC 1682 in Orion, but I also failed. Then, looking up at Jupiter and the brighter Orion stars, I realized that a very thin cirrus layer moved in, extinguish the feeble galaxies! We had to call it a night there.

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[Vic]

I'm opening this old OOTW because there is a bright supernova there – AT2018yu (http://www.supernova.thistlethwaites.com/supernova.html#2018yu) (14.2 mag, Mar 10).
My last (and best) view of this group was four years ago with Uwe's 27" in Austrian Alpes (8500 ft) so I feel it's time to revisit it again.
Vic