Object Of The Week January 16, 2022 - NGC 1964

NGC 1964, ESO 554-10, MCG -4-14-3

Barred spiral galaxy with ring structure

Lepus

RA: 05 33 21.79
DEC: -21 56 44.16

Mag: 10.81

Diam: 5.50' x 2.29'

NGC 1964 is a barred spiral galaxy with a ring structure in the constellation Lepus. It was discovered on November 20, 1784, by William Herschel. It lies about 65 miljon light years from Earth giving it a diameter of about 100,000 light years.

The galaxy is ritch in details. First of all it contains a compact inner region with a bar and two tight spiral arms. The inner region is surrounded by a ring. From the ring two wider spiral arms emerge that contain several emission nebulae.

Attachment 4590
Picture of NGC 1964 taken with the 2.2 meter MPG/ESO telescope.

NGC 1964 is part of a group that also contains NGC 1979, IC 2138 and IC 2129 and may contain ESO 487-35 and ESO 555-22.

The detailed structure of NGC 1964 visually appears to be challenging. I, for example, didn't see any structure despite having observed it from quite a dark location in Spain. My notes read

"A large, oval glow with a bright inner region and a faint halo. There are a few faint stars to the north west and south east. No further structure seen."

and more observation logs exist of people that only saw a glow. However, there is a drawing of the ring and spiral structure using a 16" telescope on DeepSkyLog.org as well. I guess it very much depends on the transparency of the sky. I didn't try to observe the other members of the group. So, on both accounts, I am curious to know what you made or make of this galaxy! And if I get the chance, I will observe this galaxy from Chile using my 20" telescope at least once more.


As always,

"Give it a go and let us know!
Good luck and great viewing!"

This tracks with a nearly identical thread on cloudynights.com
My post was my notes with a 12.5" f/5 scope:
"From my notes with the 12.5" (not dated):

"small, moderately faint, oval shape, bright stellar nucleus, nearby prominent star, core oval in shape & brite, at least 2-4 superimposed stars, looks like spiral @45°, Barred? Best at 304x."

How does that compare to the picture?

Well, I thought the very inner core looked like a bar, but I see it's just elongated, so no bar is present.

And I missed that the "stellar nucleus" was actually the core PLUS a superimposed star.

This is a nice galaxy!

It culminates at my dark site's latitude at a 33° altitude, so it doesn't have significant extinction where I observe."

Here is the image that shows the core is actually a superimposed star plus a stellar nucleus.
https://cgs.obs.carnegiescience.edu/...1964_color.jpg

I would comment that if that galaxy is barred, the bar in the center must be the tiniest "bar" I've ever seen in a galaxy photo.

Like Don, I recorded an "unusually bright stellar nucleus". In fact, back in 1835 John Herschel noted "...very small bright middle, to a star 12th mag" -- meaning the nucleus appeared similar to a 12th mag star.

It really is a superposed star and it lies only 4" east of the galaxy's nucleus.

Here are my observations of a few other members of the NGC 1964 group in Lepus:

IC 2130: Fairly faint, elongated 2:1 ~E-W, ~35"x15", low surface brightness. Contains a slightly brighter elongated core or bar.

IC 2138: Fairly faint, elongated 5:2 E-W, ~45"x20", small slightly brighter nucleus. A mag 8.5 star (HD 37002) is 2' E.

NGC 1979: Moderately bright, slightly elongated, 50"x40", very strong concentration (fairly sharp) with a small bright core that increases to the center. A mag 12 star is 1.8' E. ARA 1991, a 14" pair of mag 11.7/13.4 stars is 7' W.

Found an observation from unfavourable 48°N latitude, good to very good transparency but very bad seeing.

With 27-inch and 293x I noted: nice and bright, middle size galaxy; three-stepped spreading in brightness; inner sector visible as a very bright and small, 1:2 elongated Seyfert-like core; thereto following a 1.5'x0.5' area with middle surface brightness; outer region 1:2 elongated, faint, with diffuse edges, around 4' long; no spiral structure visible; nice star field around the galaxy with an faint double star embedded 1' SW of the centre

Hi, here's my observation from 1/31/2022: ngc 1964 galaxy in Lepus : magnitude: 10.65 ; size:5.2' x 2.3' ; on a night of mediocre seeing, elongated, fairly faint, bright stellar core, no structure observed around arms; I used a 8mm Ethos at 238x with my 14.5 Starstructure f/4.3Attachment 4616