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Object of the Week, March 30 2014 – VV 788
VV 788
Ring Galaxy
Draco
RA 12h 32m 5.2s
DEC +66 24’ 10”
Size 0.5’
Magnitude 15.8
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Located about halfway between the Big and Little Dippers is the faint ring galaxy, VV 788 and its three companions. I have two observations of this fascinating object, one each with my 28 inch and Jimi’s 48 inch.
VV 788 is the blue ring galaxy with the small, off center yellow core just inside its top right edge as seen in the SDSS image here. This is quite similar to the Cartwheel Galaxy (ESO 350-40) and Hoag’s Object (PGC 54559).
The SDSS DR 9 navigate tool says the off-center core of VV 788 has a magnitude of approximately 16.4 while Megastar shows 15.8, which is presumably the integrated magnitude of the entire object. That’s just a guess on my part though. Regardless, VV 788’s overall blue color suggests it’s much closer to us than its three companion galaxies.
With my 28 inch I first found NGC 4513, a 14.0 magnitude galaxy that’s only about 4 arc minutes away from VV 788, and then scanned over to VV 788’s position:
“Interesting! I found VV 788 with averted vision but only as a vague blur without any structure. The soft seeing doesn't help but VV 788’s faintness is the main difficulty with seeing its shape. Even so this is worth a good look during steadier seeing. 408x, 21.39 SQM.”
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The view in Jimi’s 48 inch was, not surprisingly, much more interesting:
“Now that’s a ring galaxy! The right side (west) looks “knotty” and is brighter than the left side of the ring. The small, faint galaxy nearest the ring is 18th magnitude (according to Megastar). 660x, 21.61 SQM.”
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The SDSS DR 9 navigate tool shows the galaxy MAC 1232+6624, the one that appears closest to VV 788, is actually around magnitude 16.25, which makes sense since I was able to see it without much trouble in my 28 inch scope.
I didn't see the core of VV 788 as a separate object but I wasn't looking for it in Jimi’s 48 inch. I’ll bet on a good night it would be visible as a small knot on the inside of the ring though. For all that, it might even be visible on a great night with my 28 inch. Time will tell, but I’ll certainly keep VV 788 near the top of my “observe again” list.
"GIVE IT A GO AND LET US KNOW"
