Galaxy of the Month Archive 2025

In this series of articles we draw your attention to galaxies particularly worthly of an observer's time.

• NGC 4278 in Coma Berenices

  May 2025 - Galaxy of the Month

  As the brightening skies of May approach, I have chosen for the galaxy of the month the trio of galaxies in Coma Berenices, NGC 4278, NGC 4283 and NGC 4286. All three of these galaxies were discovered by William Herschel in 1785.

  NGC 4278 is the brightest of the trio and is an elliptical galaxy classified as E1-2. It contains an AGN of the LINER type. A small pair of weak radio jets have been found in the galaxy as well as it having a strong and variable UV source at its centre. This flaring variability also extends to the X-Ray output from the galaxy. The radio jets also appear to be associated with high energy gamma ray emission from the galaxy. Images with the Hubble space telescope also show a lot of dust features near the nucleus which is unusual for an elliptical galaxy. The galaxy is also surrounded by a larger number of globular clusters than expected. NGC 4278 is thought to be about 55 million light-years away.

  NGC 4283 is also an elliptical galaxy classified as E0. NGC 4286 is probably a lenticular galaxy, but has also been classified as a dwarf galaxy, and it does show a lot of emission in the UV which suggests a lot of star formation going on.

  In fact, given the distance all the galaxies here are quite small with the largest, NGC 4278, probably only about 65,000 light-years across, so about half the size of our Milky Way. The group are probably physically associated and have the designation 399 in the WBL catalogue. The group are suspected to be part of one of the filaments associated with Virgo cluster.

  It is also suggested that NGC 4278 is part of a galaxy group associated with NGC 4274, although there is some debate on that. It is also part of the Coma I group of the Virgo cluster. NGC 4274 lies about 20’ to the north of NGC 4278.

  NGC 4278 is a part of the Astronomical League's H400 list and at around 11^th magnitude should be visible in quite small telescopes. NGC 4283 is much fainter at around 13^th magnitude so should be more of a challenge for larger telescopes. NGC 4286 is fainter still at around 14^th magnitude so will require a much larger telescope to find unless you have access to very dark skies.

  It does help that the brighter two galaxies are ellipticals with bright cores so should be easy to spot. NGC 4286 is an edge on galaxy so it will be harder to see. The group is however quite tight and will fit in the same field of view using a modern hyperwide field eyepiece at high power, which may be the best way to catch NGC 4286. The Night Sky Observer's Guide Vol 2 suggests that in a 35cm telescope NGC 4286 is a difficult faint smudge. The other two should be visible in 25cm telescopes. The galaxy also makes The Cambridge Photographic Atlas of Galaxies.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

  If you'd like to try out the Clear Skies Observing Guides (CSOG), you can download observing guide for the current Galaxy of the Month without the need to register. CSOG are not associated with the Webb Deep-Sky Society but the work of Victor van Wulfen.

• NGC 5223 in Canes Venatici

  April 2025 - Galaxy of the Month

  April skies give us the last chance to see fainter galaxies before the end of astronomical dark in early May. Mark Stuart suggested to me that the trio of galaxies in Canes Venatici around NGC 5223 might make an interesting GOM. All three of the galaxies, NGC 5223, NGC 5228 and NGC 5233 were discovered by William Herschel in 1785.

  It is suggested that NGC 5223 may contain an AGN due to the fact that it contains a bright X-Ray source at its centre. It is classified as an elliptical galaxy, possibly E2. NGC 5228 is suggested to be a lenticular galaxy of type S0 and also a radio source. NGC 5233 is a spiral. There is an ESO image which suggests this is a blue dwarf galaxy with a large star cluster, but I am not sure if they have the right designation associated with this observation. There certainly does not appear to be any confusion in the NGC as to its identification. NGC 5233 is also suggested to have an AGN of the LINER type.

  It is unclear whether this is a physical group as the distances to them are either not defined or widely different, although the redshift based distances are similar so they could be a physical group. The whole field is also littered with other much fainter galaxies. The group has not been catalogued in either the LGG or WBL catalogues which suggests either it was too faint for them or it is not a true group.

  Unfortunately, there is not much other information on the galaxies available so I apologise for the somewhat shorter GOM this month. All the galaxies appear to be somewhat smaller than our Milky Way galaxy.

  The galaxies are fairly faint so the group is going to be challenging to see. The group is quite tight and all three galaxies will fit in the same field of view with a modern hyperwide (100 degree) high power eyepiece. The group does not make it into either Miles Paul’s Atlas of Galaxy Trios (available for free from our website) or Alvin Huey’s Galaxy Trios and Triple Systems guide (available for free from Alvin's website).

  William Herschel discovered the group with his 18.7” speculum metal mirror reflector, although he described all three of the galaxies as very faint, it probably needs at least a 40-45cm telescope to see the main components. It would be interesting to see what size telescope is needed to see the other galaxies in the group. Perhaps as expected there are no observations of the group in any of the standard references. Steve Gottlieb described them all as faint with his 17.5” Dobsonian. It would be interesting to know what size telescope is needed to see the small edge-on UGC 8547 as I note that Steve Gottlieb did not include it in his UGC notes.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• NGC 3044 in Sextans

  March 2025 - Galaxy of the Month

  For this month’s GOM I have chosen NGC 3044 in Sextans. NGC 3044 is a nice edge on spiral galaxy, close to the superthin variety. First discovered by William Herschel in December 1784 it lies at an estimated distance of about 67 million light-years from us.

  Given that distance to the galaxy this would make NGC 3044 about 91,000 light-years across, slightly smaller than our own Milky Way at 100,000 light-years. It appears relatively isolated in space which is of interest as the lop-sided nature of the galaxy suggests that it may have had a recent interaction with another galaxy. This may also explain the cloud of ionised gas which extends about 1 kpc above the centre. NGC 3044 is classified as an SBc spiral lying at an angle of perhaps 85 degrees from the plane of the sky.

  It has been suggested that it is part of the widely spaced Leo Cloud of galaxies. There are also suggestions that it is a part of the extended filaments of galaxies associated with the Virgo cluster.

  NGC 3044 has hosted one type II supernova in SN 1983E. Images of the galaxy suggest that its colours are fairly blue suggesting a lot of recent star formation. The disk also shows signs of knots which could represent large star clusters. This activity is backed up by its brightness and structure as seen in UV images from the GALEX satellite which suggests strong star forming activity through the galaxy. Whether this is the result of a merger, perhaps half a billion years or so ago, is not clear but there are no companions close enough to it to have disturbed it. Radio observations also show that the HI cloud surrounding NGC 3044 is lopsided and warped. There are also high latitude HI features, some of which appear to be expanding shells. Interestingly SIMBAD suggests that it is an AGN candidate.

  NGC 3044 makes the Herschel 3 list as well as most lists of flat galaxies including that from the Astronomical League. Observations from the The Night Sky Observer's Guide Vol. 2 suggest that telescopes in the 40-45cm class should show structure in the plane of the galaxy in terms of discrete knots. The galaxy should be visible in say 25cm but will not show much detail. Luginbuhl and Skiff (L&S) suggest that it is visible as a faint spindle in 25cm but 30cm shows some structure. Note however these observations were made from altitude in dark skies. It is also in Alvin Huey’s Flat Galaxies guide which can be downloaded for free from his website.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• NGC 2648 in Cancer

  February 2025 - Galaxy of the Month

  Our object this month is the galaxy NGC 2648, also known as Arp 89, in Cancer. NGC 2648 was first discovered by William Herschel in 1784 and is paired with the galaxy PGC 24469, also known as MCG +02-22-006, which is a part of Arp 89. NGC 2468 is one of the brighter galaxies in Cancer, which however is not saying much! R.J. Mitchell observing with the 72” at Birr did actually find PGC 24469 in 1857 but it was not included in the final copy of Lord Rosse’s monograph and hence did not make it into the NGC. The full story can be found on Harold Corwin's website.

  NGC 2468 and PGC 24469 are physically interacting. NGC 2648 is thought to be a retired galaxy, one in which star formation has ceased. The pair lie at about 112 million light-years from us. Arp classified it in his group Spiral galaxy with large high surface brightness companion on arm. If they are at this distance then the pair would be about 150,000 light-years across.

  Both NGC 2648 and PGC 24469 shows signs of tidal interactions with one of the spiral arms of NGC 2468 being pulled towards its companion and tidal tails coming out of PGC 24469. PGC 24469 is also suggested to be a WR (Wolf-Rayet) galaxy which suggests a lot of star formation going on as it contains a lot of short lived massive Wolf-Rayet stars. The star formation could have been triggered by the interaction with NGC 2648. NGC 2648 although classified as a spiral shows no signs of star formation going on and its colours are rather yellow, not dissimilar to a lenticular however the pair are quite isolated and there is no nearby cluster for it to have formed in the usual way as a lenticular. Interestingly despite it appearing in Arp’s catalogue it did not make it into the original VV catalogue of interacting galaxies but was added in the extended version as VV 1239.

  Steve Gottleib did not note the faint companion PGC 24469 when observing with his 17.5” but did see it as faint with the 24”. Victor van Wulfen suggested he saw both with his 14” in mountain skies. Perhaps surprisingly as an Arp object it does not appear in the The Night Sky Observer's Guide. Alvin Huey in his Arp Observing guide says that both galaxies were clearly seen at high power in his 22”.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• NGC 1407 in Eridanus

  January 2025 - Galaxy of the Month

  This month’s challenge is the group of galaxies around NGC 1407 in Eridanus. Although the two main galaxies are relatively bright in themselves their low culminating altitude, even from the southern UK, makes them challenging to find. NGC 1407, NGC 1400 and NGC 1393 were discovered by William Herschel in 1785/86. John Herschel added NGC 1383 in 1835, although this may have been from his South African sojourn.

  These galaxies form a clump within the much larger Eridanus cluster, sometimes known as the Eridanus A group. This cluster has maybe 200 members and lies perhaps 75 million light-years away (23 Mpc). Somewhat confusingly there is also the Eridanus Group which refers to this area as well. The cluster is thought to be just condensing out of the Hubble flow and is related to the nearby Fornax cluster and is sometimes known as Fornax II. The whole lot is part of the Eridanus-Fornax-Dorado filament, a structure perhaps 10 Mpc in length.

  NGC 1407 is classed as an E0 elliptical galaxy, practically circular as we view it and NGC 1400 is an SB0, a pretty round lenticular, although recent measurements suggest it may in fact be an E1 galaxy. The other galaxies in the field are mostly spirals. In the Eridanus cluster as a whole some 30% of the galaxies are elliptical or lenticular and the rest spirals and irregulars.

  The concentration of galaxies around NGC 1407 is such that with a medium power eyepiece of say 200x and a medium to large telescope you may get four or five NGC galaxies in the same field. The fainter ones will be more of a challenge than the bright ones having been found with large telescopes towards the end of the 19th century by Marth and Leavenworth.

  NGC 1407 itself is unusual in that it contains some relatively young stars which suggests that it has undergone a recent star formation episode. It has also undergone several radio outbursts and as expected contains a supermassive black hole.

  The NGC 1407 group also shows some of the characteristics of a fossil group and contains many dwarf galaxies. Fossil galaxy groups are found when many of the more massive galaxies have merged into the central brightest galaxy, here NGC 1407, and leave many dwarf galaxies. NGC 1400 itself is odd in that it displays an anomalous velocity compared to the rest of the group but it does appear to be part of the group and may be making its first approach, along with its attendant galaxies. The interstellar medium in it has probably been stripped out by RAM pressure stripping by the IGM in the cluster. It is likely, although by no means certain, that NGC 1400 and 1407 are interacting.

  The relationship of the galaxies in the Eridanus and Fornax clusters can be seen on the Atlas of the Universe website. NGC 1400 and 1407 appear in Steven O’Meara’s Secret Deep project as numbers 12 and 13 and in the Herschel 400 list. It is perhaps important to note that O’Mearas book was written some time ago and some of the information regarding the astrophysics is now out of date.

  As these galaxies do not rise very high to observe them find a site with a good dark southern horizon and try and observe them on the meridian. From lower latitudes the main galaxies should be visible in say 15cm but I suspect from the Uk maybe 22cm will be needed to see them. The The Night Sky Observer's Guide (NSOG) Volume 1 suggests that 20-25cm would be useful to see NGC 1400 and 1407 although 30-35cm would give better views. There is also a downloadable guide to the Eridanus group on the Clear Skies website.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director