NGC 4298 and NGC 4302
A close pair of Spiral Galaxies

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NGC 4298 is the lower galaxy.

This is a 9 minute exposure with an ST-6 CCD camera thru Kopernik's 20-inch F/8.1 Ritchey Chretien Cassegrain telescope. The field of view is about 5x7 arc minutes, with west at the top.

Quote from the Deep Sky Field Guide to Uranometria 2000:

NGC 4298: Very small, bright nucleus, many knotty filamentary arms with dark lanes

NGC 4302: Bright middle, nucleus hidden by strong dark lane.

The red shift of both galaxies is about the same, and gives a distance estimate for the pair of 60 million light years (Hubble Constant of 62 Km/sec per Mpc) and a diameter of 56,000 light years for NGC 4298 and 97,000 light years for NGC 4302. Although they seem to be close, there is no indication that these galaxies are interacting, or are anything but normal spiral galaxies. However, NGC 4302 does have a small "plume" of glowing material emerging perpendicularly from it’s nucleus.

Observed visually using Kopernik’s 20 inch telescope, both galaxies were in the same eyepiece field at 120 power. We were able to see the brightest field stars, and the bright knot in NGC 4302 (star cluster? H-II region? foreground star??). We were able to see the differing shapes of these objects, but on a night of only mediocre seeing, we were unable to see the dust lane in 4302, or any of the mottling in 4298.

NGC 4298 Magnitude: 11.4 Constellation: Coma Berenices RA: 12h 21m 32.6s Dec: +14d 36' 25" Epoch 2000 Size (mins): 3.2 x 1.8 Classification: SA(rs)c III-IV                         Spiral Galaxy, Inner Ring

NGC 4302 Magnitude: 12.7 Constellation: Coma Berenices RA: 12h 21m 42.4s Dec: +14d 36' 05" Epoch 2000 Size (mins): 5.5 x 1.0 Classification: SA                         Spiral Galaxy, Edge-on

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George Normandin, KAS

May 12th, 1998