NGC 4319 and MK 205 - Galaxies in Draco

This is a 7.5 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 east at the top.

Quote from the Deep Sky Field Guide to Uranometria 2000:

NGC 4319: Very small, very bright nucleus in bright bar 0.4 x 0.13 arc min, two main faint arms.

NGC 4345: This "object" is probably a bright star, but this catalog number is also sometimes associated with NGC 4319.

Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 4319 is in the Constellation of Draco. It has a companion (NGC 4291) that is just outside of the Kopernik image. Markaryan (MK) 205 is a small and peculiar Spiral Galaxy that appears close to or even embedded in NGC 4319. MK 205 has a very bright Active Galactic Nucleus and a red shift that is much higher than NGC 4319. Radio telescopes show a Quasar at the same position. This pair of galaxies is one of a number of examples that Astronomer H. Arp cites as proof of his theory that the red shift of a quasar does not result from the Hubble Law (expansion of the universe). Arp contends that there is a light bridge connecting these two galaxies, so they must be at the same distance. Recent Hubble Space Telescope spectra show an absorption feature in the spectra of MK 205 that is in fact at the same red shift as NGC 4319. This would seem to show that MK 205 is in deed a much more distant object with some of it's light being absorbed as it passes through NGC 4319. This controversy is sure to be the subject or research in the future.

NGC 4319 Magnitude: 12.8 Constellation: Draco RA: 12h 21m 43.9s Dec: +75° 19' 28" Epoch 2000 Size (mins): 2.9' x 2.3' Classification: SB(r)ab     Barred Spiral Galaxy, Inner Ring

MK 205 Magnitude: 14.5 Constellation: Coma Berenices RA: 12h 21m 42.4s Dec: +75° 18' 32" Epoch 2000 Classification: SB(r)ab pec Sy1          Barred Spiral Galaxy, Inner Ring, Peculiar, Seyfert Type 1 Active Galactic Nucleus

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George Normandin, KAS

May 2nd, 2002