April 2023 - Picture of the Month
Galaxy NGC 3718 (Arp 214) in Ursa Major
Given that it's galaxy season, I thought that it might be time for another of these objects: they've been absent from Picture of the Month since last October.
I find that Halton Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies is a good place to look for something interesting, after all, that was more or less the criteria for inclusion. It also transpires that NGC 3718 (Arp 214) was the second Galaxy of the Month (GOM) back in April 2011 and so, in a fit of nostalgia, the decision was made! Then I discovered that David had sent me this image back in 2020 which is much too good to leave sitting in a directory on my laptop.
However another motivation behind my choice is that I actually to observed this group in 2020 with my 10-inch telescope, successfully. Perhaps I should also note that just below NGC 3718 in this image is Hickson 56 compact galaxy group, which was catalogued as Arp 322, and those are galaxies that I haven't seen.
James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.
