| Galaxy
Pair
aka Arp 270, PGC 32424/34, MCG 6-24-17/18, Uppsala 5931/5935 RA: 10h49m50.9s Dec: +32°58'48" (Leo Minor) Integrated Visual Magnitude: 12.4/12.5 Angular Diameter: 1.7' x 0.9' / 2.7' x 1.1' Mean Surface Brightness: 21.5/22.3 Mag/arc-sec² Minimum requirements to detect: 4-inch scope under dark skies |
NGC
3395 and NGC 3396 form a very nice pair of interacting galaxies.
This pair is among the brightest and best of the listed by Arp in his catalog
of interacting galaxies. Smaller scopes will show a tiny faint V-shaped
smudge of light. Higher magnification in a larger scope (> 6") will
split the galaxies into two. In most scopes NGC 3395 will apear as
the brigher of the two. It is smaller with a brighter nucleus.
But I found the larger NGC 3396 to be the dominant object in my 18 inch.
In my 18-inch at 94x these galaxies were small but surprisingly bright and quite obvious. At 270x NGC 3396 appeared larger and fatter (more diffuse) than its neighbor. NGC 3395 appeared sharper and skinneir with a bright, thin inner region. Burind within this innner regain appeared a birghter still, starlike core.
Walter Scott Houston wrote that the bar connecting these two galaxies is not apparent in smaller scopes. In my 18-inch I was able to see the two overlap, much like in the picture above, but I'm not certain this is a true bar of material rather than simple overlap. With averted vision I could see a straight line of nebulosity extending off the end of NGC 3395 which overlapped its neighbor. I did not note the southern spiral arm in NGC 3396 which is so obvious on photographs, but at the time I didn't know to look for it so it may be worth a shot in larger scopes.
The field in an 6-inch f/8
at 50x. North is down and east is to the right.
| Millennium
Star Atlas Vol II Chart 659
Sky Atlas 2000 Chart 6 Uranometria 2000 Vol I Chart 105 Herald-Bobroff Astroatlas B-05 C-21 |
