Galaxies NGC 7242, NGC 7240,
& Galaxy Cluster WBL 679 + Supernova 2001 ib

The first picture below identifies Supernova 2001 ib (in NGC 7242), while the second identifies the members of this Galaxy Cluster.

Supernova 2001ib:

• Discovered: December 7th, 2001, by amateur Ron Arbour of South Wonston, Hampshire, England. Mr. Arbour also had a pre-discovery image taken on December 5th, 2001. Mark Armstrong also reported a discovery of this supernova.
• Magnitude 16.8 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.

This group of 9 galaxies in the constellation of Lacerta forms the WBL 679 Galaxy Cluster. The two dominant galaxies are NGC 7242, an Elliptical Galaxy with a close companion, and NGC 7040, a Lenticular Galaxy. The remaining galaxies are all elliptical or lenticular types, with the exception of Spiral Galaxy IC 1441. All of these galaxies have about the same red shift and therefore all are probably true cluster members. There is some confusion as to the identification of the galaxies in this cluster that are included in the Index Catalog (IC), since the discoverer only provided Dreyer descriptions, but not the positions.

Using the red shift data from the “NASA Extra-galactic Data Base(NED)”, (and a Hubble Constant of 62 Km per sec., per Megaparsec), one can calculate a rough distance estimate for NGC 7242, and SN 2001 ib, of about 300 million light years.

NGC 7242 Magnitude: 12.0 Constellation: Lacerta RA: 22h 15m 39.6s Dec: +37° 18' 01" Epoch 2000 Size (mins): 1.2' x 1.0' Classification: Elliptical (uncertain)	NGC 7240 Magnitude: 15.2 RA: 13h 41m 43.7s Dec: +55° 40' 23" Epoch 2000 Size (mins): 0.7' x 0.7' Classification: Lenticular (uncertain)
UGC 11961 Magnitude: 16.4 Size (mins): ? Classification: Elliptical (companion of NGC 7242)	IC 5193 Magnitude: 16.0 Size (mins): 0.3' x 0.3' Classification: Elliptical (uncertain)
IC 1441 Magnitude: 15.3 Size (mins): 0.5' x 0.3' Classification: Spiral	IC 5192 Magnitude: 17.0 Size (mins): 0.4' x 0.3' Classification: Elliptical (uncertain)
UGC 11963 Magnitude: 15.0 Size (mins): 1.0' x 0.2' Classification: Lenticular	PGC 68416 Magnitude: 17.2 Size (mins): Classification: Lenticular

Click below to

George Normandin, KAS

December 14th, 2001