Object of The Week June 9, 2024—NGC 5331 (Fox Eyes)

[Jimi Lowrey]

NGC 5331 AKA VV 253
RA
13 52 11
DEC
+02 05 55
Virgo
Mag 13.8
Type interaction
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I was observing with Akarsh this week and was looking at my old Uranometria and came across a page were I had written in bold pencil by NGC 5331 “FOX Eyes”. I do not remember when I made this note but decided to dial it up to see what the notation was all about. I found it immediately at 375X and remembered at once what the note was about. At 375X NGC 5331 looked like two fairly bright small eyes looking back at you.

Hubble image
IMG_0496.jpeg

At the time of this observation the conditions were really good and at 813x and 1040X I was able to see the tidal streamers. CGCG 17-18 companion galaxy was easy and looked really mottled I had noticed on my screen that there was a small faint Edge on galaxy (LEDA 3300547) on the West side of NGC 5331 I jacked up the power to 1040X and much to my surprise I was able to see this faint sliver with AV all the time. It had a brighter core and the extension were really faint. LEDA 3300547 is A real challenge object.

Next time out why not see if you think NGC 5331 looks like eyes looking back at you.

Give It A Go!
Good Luck And Great Viewing!

[FaintFuzzies]

Nice object.

As I told Dragan that I'm compiling all of my 2007 to 2019 observations from my notebook to spreadsheet, I ran across my notes for this object.

I'll eventually upload the notes to my website after I finish compiling and cleaning them up. The sad thing is that I misplaced my observing notebooks for 1992 to 2007 during my move from CA to TX. Only some of those notes are electronically captured. it is probably in one of the 100 boxes still in the garage. I still have my notes from 1978 to 1992, not much from 1978 and 1982 and 1986 to 1992 though as I was at college and grad school.

Here are my notes from a 2014 observation at Shot Rock under NELM 6.9 skies.

VV 253 (13 52 16.3 +02 06 11)
22" at 230, 328, 383 and 460x - Very nice double galaxy that appears as a pair of ghostly eyes looking at you.
Component "a" was seen as a faint 3:1 elongated glow. A very faint bar starting at the very faint nearly stellar core to about 2/3 of the way to the NW tip. PA = 135 and 0.5' long.
Component "b" is almost attached to "a" and seen as a 5:2 elongated glow with somwhat defined edges. A brighter elongated center is in the middle. The NE edge seems a tad brighter than the rest of the halo. No tidal streamers were detected at any magnification.

[Uwe Glahn]

I can contribute a sketch through the 27-inch. Under soso transparency but good seeing some structures could be resolved but not tidal streamers were visible.

sketch: 27" 586x, NELM 6m5+, Seeing II
NGC5331.jpg
home

[akarsh]

Here is my observation with Jimi:

At 610x, I was able to easily detect both NGC galaxies. The tidal stream going northwest was a vague sensation and for some reason seemed much brighter around due NW of the star (i.e. around 13h 52m 13s 02° 06' 34") which is further down the tidal stream than the location of the tidal starburst on the Hubble image (also seen on the DSS2). In any case, I was not able to clearly confirm this tidal streamer.

However, at 1040x, the southeastern end of PGC 49264 (the longer of the two galaxies) showed what looked like a tidally extended plume that is overexposed in the DSS2 but is seen more properly on the HST image. The plume at some moments appeared to curve right, perhaps an illusion due to detecting the faint uncataloged* galaxy at 13h 52m 19s 02° 05' 46". However, I did not carefully confirm this galaxy and did not therefore log it. I however got 3 flashes of the other uncataloged* galaxy at 13h 52m 15s 02° 06' 40". At 813x this latter edge-on appeared much more strongly, and I also got a weak sensation of the northwestern tidal stream.


(*I'm looking at PGC2003, it's possible that it has a new LEDA number / is in the SDSS or 2MASS)

[Steve Gottlieb]

It's a bit surprising to me that none of the later visual observers (after William Herschel) who might have taken a look resolved the pair. In any case, it wasn't reported so we're left with a single NGC number. But John Herschel has an odd description:

"A very insignificant cluster of very small scattered stars; or a small resolved nebula."

It certainly just looked like two galaxies (or nebulae in Herschel's parlance) in my 17.5", but perhaps the nearly attached core of the fainter galaxy gave him the impression it was starting to resolve into stars.