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Next to the Antenna Galaxies is a wonderful galaxy that looks like one of the antenna galaxies but sans antenna - a phantom. Just a slight nudge back and forth centers one then the other. It's a really pretty view.
Attachment 4723
M96 has a faint ring and within the ring is this embedded galaxy that presents as a slightly brighter elongation.
Attachment 4724
Mel Bartels
Wow Mel, what a huge field around the Antenna's. Beside the whole tidal tails, you captured a hidden treasure - NGC 4027. The Galaxies around the known showpieces are often a rich playground for nice objects.
The tidal tails of the Antennas are nearly impossible to see from southern Germany (~48°N). And with the 28-inch f/4.4 at the top of Gamsberg/Namibia the field was way to small to capture the tidal tails.
I also found an old sketch of NGC 4027 with 16-inch. It suffers also from the low position in the sky from here.
sketch NGC 4038/4039: 28", 446x-624x, Seeing III, Nelm 7m5+
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sketch NGC 4027: 16", 257x, Seeing II, Nelm 6m5+
Attachment 4726
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And yes, M 96 has an interesting field of companions around. Highlight of course the embedded PGC 3760438 in the NE part of the outer ring. I guess you need at last some aperture for that. I could not spot the galaxy with my former 16-inch.
sketch M 96: 27", 172x-293x, Seeing III, Nelm 7m0+
Attachment 4727
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Here is an image of M96 with the edge-on galaxy behind the spiral arm
Note that several more distant galaxies can be seen through M96, but I doubt these would be visual objects.
https://www.learnastronomyhq.com/art...eep-space.html
Jimi and I looked at NGC 4027 and NGC 4027A through his 48" last month. We had moderate transparency (presumably due to smoke from Mexico) and poor seeing.
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NGC 4027 had too much detail for my novice sketching skills, showing starbursts and knots all over. NGC 4027A appeared distinctly triangular. As I note in the sketch (although in poor wording), the knot on the NW corner of the galaxy was sensed as a brighter side of the triangle, and could not be resolved as a stellaring per se.
I hadn't heard of NGC 4027A until Jimi pointed it out to me.