Object of the Week, June 15 2014: NGC 5544/5545, the “Exclamation Marc” Arp 199

[RolandosCY]

And here is my sketch from a few nights ago. Not particularly hard to detect, rather brighter than expected. NGC5544 is round, bright 9with a brighter center), while 5545 is longish, again with a brighter longish center. The two galaxies appeared at 294X to be touching each other...

5544a1.jpg

[RolandosCY]

And here is my sketch from a few nights ago. Not particularly hard to detect, rather brighter than expected. NGC5544 is round, bright 9with a brighter center), while 5545 is longish, again with a brighter longish center. The two galaxies appeared at 294X to be touching each other...

5544a1.jpg

By the way, the duo was visible in my 6" achro as a longish, but generally undefinable hazy faint patch at 128X. With direct vision I could see that "something" was there, with averted vision that "something" would become longish, sort of like an extremely faint version of NGC 3115! I couldn't though detect any details with the 6". I plan to try it with the 6" and a higher magnification as well, but I must admit I was surprised that even under my SQM 21 skies I could detect it in the refractor!