Galaxies NGC 1355 and NGC 1358 in Eridanus
Supernova 2009im

Supernova 2009im:

• Discovered: August 24, 2009, by Koichi Itagaki of Japan.
• Magnitude 15.5 at discovery, and 18.5 (or dimmer) in the Kopernik image.
• Type Ia

Follow this Link to a NASA Web site on supernovas. It has a very nice animation and a description of what these objects are.

Galaxies NGC 1355 and NGC 1358, in the Constellation of Eridanus, form a non-interacting pair. NGC 1358 appears to be about 3 million light years furthur away than NGC 1355.

NGC 1355:

NGC 1355 is an edge-on galaxy of uncertain type. It is either a Lenticular Galaxy or a Spiral Galaxy. A rough distance estimate for NGC 1355 and Supernova 2009im is 170 million light years.

NGC 1358:

NGC 1358 is a rather unusual face-on Barred Spiral Galaxy with a small very bright nucleus, a very short bar, and two almost symmetrical arms that emerge from the ends of the bar. The low surface brightness arms form a pseudo ring structure and are mostly traced out by H-II star forming regions. The distance of this galaxy is roughly 173 million light years.

NGC 1355 Magnitude: 14.1 Constellation: Eridanus RA: 03h 33m 23.6s Dec: -04° 59' 56" Epoch 2000 Size (mins): 1.4' x 0.4' Classification: S0: sp        Lenticular, edge-on, spindle shaped, (or possibly an edge-on spiral) Dreyer description in the NGC:        "Pretty faint, small."

NGC 1358 Magnitude: 12.8 RA: 03h 33m 39.7s Dec: -05° 05 '22" Epoch 2000 Size (mins): 2.5' x 2.0' Classification: SAB(r)0/a Sy2        Mixed Barred/Non-barred spiral galaxy, with inner ring, Seyfort type II Deep Sky Field Guide to U2000:     "Small elongated core, smooth envelope."

George Normandin, KAS

December 14th, 2009