Pegasus
Compact galaxy group
RA: 22 38 29
Dec: +35 19 49

UGC 12127_DSScolor.JPG

Two months ago (August 2023) I was observing under a wonderfully dark sky with my 30-inch scope in eastern Oregon, and after a so-so view of Stephan’s Quintet in Pegasus - wildfire smoke had ruined the transparency - I started to wander around the area to see what I could come across. About twice as far to the northeast of NGC 7331 as Stephan’s Quintet is to its southwest, I stumbled across a compact galaxy group that I thought I’d never seen. Actually, I had – eleven years ago with the 28-inch – but I had no memory of it until I checked my notes.

That aside, this is an enjoyable compact galaxy group to explore. Except for UGC 12127, the member galaxies are all about a magnitude fainter than the galaxies of Stephan’s Quintet, but the six brightest are no dimmer than magnitude 15.3. There are also a handful of fainter, and smaller looking galaxies surrounding the six brightest, and some really nice galaxies to the north, but I’ll focus on the six brightest because they make such a nice counterpoise to Stephan’s Quintet.

The brightest is UGC 12127, an elliptical galaxy. Most interesting to me, is MCG+06-49-056, an edge on galaxy with little MCG+06-49-057 on its northeast end. I didn’t see it two months ago with my 30-inch through the wildfire smoke, but I did in 2012 with the 28-inch. It appeared as a slight brightening on the northeast end of MCG+06-49-056. They’re not interacting, as there’s about 50 million light years between them (that’s approximately the distance from us to the Virgo Cluster) as shown in the list below.

This is my 28-inch sketch:

UGC12127 galaxy group_28inch_crop-rotated.JPG UGC12127 galaxy group_28inch_crop_invert_rotated.JPG

To identify the galaxies in the DSS image and my sketch, UGC 12127 is at the bottom center. Then use the table to follow the six brightest galaxies clockwise.

I mostly enjoyed seeing this main group bunched together in the same high-power field of view – 300x two months ago and 700x in 2012. This is lovely group, and if you give it a go, let us know!



UGC 12127 z = 0.027 = 374 Mly 13.0 mag

MCG+06-49-062 z = 0.0283 = 391 Mly 15.2 mag

MCG+06-49-060 z = 0.0298 = 412 Mly 14.3 mag

MCG+06-49-061 z = 0.0275 = 380 Mly 14.5 mag

MCG+06-49-057 z = 0.0292 = 404 Mly 15.3 mag

MCG+06-49-056 z = 0.0259 = 354 Mly 14.1 mag



Not seen
2MASX J22383404+3523340 z = 0.0254 = 352 Mly 15.8 mag

2MASX J22383755+3521240 z = 0.0252 = 349 Mly 16.5 mag (estimate)