A0021+25

Hi everyone,

Has anyone of you observed A0021+25 yet? It is listed in Wolfgang Steinicke's list of active galactic nuclei:

http://www.klima-luft.de/steinicke/KHQ/anhang.txt

and it was discovered in 1989 (published in 1991) as a ring Seyfert galaxy in a group of galaxies:

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/19.....69D/abstract

It looks beautiful on PanSTARRS images. Looking at its image (attached to this post), at first I thought it was a gravitational lens object. But the ring is thought to have formed due to galaxy collision according to this paper.

It is located approximately 900 million light years away from us in the constellation of Andromeda, just east of Pegasus square.
Coordinates (J2000): 00 24 09.4 +25 25 08

Take a look at Fig. 3b of the discovery paper, showing the structure of these galaxies, and Table 2, showing visual magnitudes. The * symbol on Fig. 3b indicates a 15 mag foreground star.


Since the magnitude of the brightest galaxy of this group didn't look too faint, I gave it a try with my 20" Dobsonian on two different recent nights.

At 419x magnification I saw the 15 mag star and the brightest galaxy of the group (the 15.1 mag Seyfert galaxy), which appeared slightly non-stellar. To the north-east of this galaxy there is the 16.0 mag galaxy G2 (designation in the paper). Once in a while something popped up at that position, but it was a difficult observation in spite of its brightness, probably because it is quite close to the two brigher objects.
I was unable to observe any of the fainter objects of this group.

This seems to be pretty much off the beaten path, but at least some of its components aren't extremely faint. So I was wondering if anyone of you knows this object and has observed it? If so, how did you observe the fainter components?


Clear skies,

Robin

It's on my list to try next time the clouds clear, if they ever clear here. I found the object in my User file of the Argo Navis as VV96J002409.4+252508.
Thanks for the lead.
Al

Checking my notes more thoroughly, I did observe this quasar on 11/4/2016 with a 22" at 377x. "Pretty easy to find this 15.1 magnitude quasar. A tiny triangle of stars with the QSO at the apex. 844Mly distant.

It also goes by the following IDs besides the one in my previous post: [VV2000] J002409.4+252508 and [VV98] J002409.4+252508.

Jimi Lowrey and I took a look last night at 610x using his 48" in west Texas.

LEDA 138181 (V = 15.1, B = 16.1)): the main Seyfert 2 AGN was moderately bright, round, very small bright core that increased to a stellar nucleus with direct vision.

LEDA 138182 (V = 16.3, B = 17.3): this is the galaxy close NNE [17"] of the Seyfert. It was an obvious (fairly faint) glow, slightly elongated E-W, roughly 15"x10".

WISEA J002411.65+252502.0 (V = 17.4, B = 18.3): this is the galaxy to the east [30"] of the Seyfert. I was surprised to find the galaxy is missing from the LEDA database though NED has a couple of infrared designations. It was faint and small, only 6"-8" in size.

We were unsuccessful at spotting the tiny galaxy at the western edge of the Seyfert or any sign of the loop, which looks to me (on image) to be a tidal tail originating in the northern galaxy (LEDA 138182). The 1991 paper on the group considers it a ring, though enhancement is needed to see the eastern side.

With a 22" at 450x from last Friday: "The Seyfert galaxy can be seen with direct vision fairly easily. The other two components were too dim; neither did I see any evidence of a ring."

Thank you for your replies! I was pretty sure someone of you has already observed this before, although I couldn't find anything with the search tool. And it is also interesting that the other components (except for the 3 brightes ones) are too faint even for 48".

Clear skies

Robin