NGC 52, Spiral Galaxy

Spiral Galaxy UGC 52 - Supernova 2002 hw

Galaxy UGC 52 and Supernova 2002 hw
Image taken with an ST-9E CCD camera thru Kopernik's 20 inch F/8.1 telescope. Image taken under very poor seeing conditions at 3:20 UT on December 10, 2002. The field of view is 8x8 arc minutes with North at the top.

Supernova 2002 hw:

Discovered November 9th, 2002, by Mike Schwartz of LOTOSS.
Magnitude at discovery: 16.6
Type: Ia (somewhat subluminous??)
The supernova is magnitude 17.5 in the Kopernik image, taken on December 10, 2002 at 3:20 UT.
T. Matheson, et al, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, report that "SN 2002hw is a reddened type-Ia supernova before maximum. The supernova expansion velocity is about 11,000 km/s. In addition, the overall shape of the spectrum is flat toward the blue, implying that the supernova is extinguished by dust."

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

Spiral Galaxy UGC 52:

This 14.3 magnitude galaxy is in the constellation of Pisces. It is a face-on spiral galaxy with dim, tightly wound spiral arms. Unfortunately, because of the poor seeing conditions, the Kopernik image above does not show the structure of the arms.

Based on the published red shift, (and a Hubble Constant of 62 Km/sec per Mpc) a rough distance estimate for UGC 52 and SN 2002 hw is 276 million light years, with a galaxy diameter of about 145,000 light years.

UGC 52
Magnitude: 14.3
Constellation: Pisces
RA: 00h 06m 49.8s
Dec: +08° 37' 46" Epoch 2000
Size (mins): 1.8' x 1.7'
Classification: Spiral Galaxy

Click below to

George Normandin, KAS

December 10th, 2002