NGC 4054 = VV 136
Constellation: Ursa Major
RA: 12 03 12 Dec: +57 53 36
Mag: ~15.2
Type: Galaxy triplet
NGC 4054, aka VV 136, was discovered by William Herschel on April 17, 1789 and described as "extremely faint and small." Herschel only noted a single nebula through his 18-inch speculum reflector, but in 1959 Russian astronomer Boris Vorontsov-Velyaminov catalogued NGC 4054 as a triple system (VV 136) in his Catalogue and Atlas of Interacting Galaxies.
NED (NASA-IPAC Extragalactic Database) only shows 9 references and no special notes on this system, so it has been ignored by professional astronomers.
I last observed it on April 20th last year at 488x and all 3 members were easily visible within a 1/2 arcminute circle. VV 136a is the largest member, but VV 136b (just southeast) has the highest surface brightness with an extremely bright core. VV 136c on the northeast edge is the faintest member but was direct vision and elongated in the eyepiece.
NGC 4054.jpg
While doing some research on this object, I noticed on the SDSS image what appears to be an anonymous object squeezed between two others. It seems like I always learn something new about an object when I go to write an OOTW. If you observe NGC 4054, let us know how many objects you can resolve. I know I'm looking forward to reobserving to see if I can resolve the anonymous galaxy (labeled on image).
PANSTARRS image
NGC 4054 PanSTARSS.jpg
GIVE IT A GO AND LET US KNOW!
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