Galaxy NGC 2782 (Arp 215)

NGC 2782
NGC 2782: Galaxie in Lynx; 500 mm Cassegrain f/7.2; SBIG STL11K; 240-60-60-60 min LRGB; Bernese Highlands; © 2019 Radek Chromik

History

On 18 March 1787 the German-British astronomer William Herschel pointed his large 18.7 inch reflective telescope to the sky and saw a bright nebula drifting by, which he cataloged as I 167 and described as «considerably bright, round, bright nucleus, 1.5' diameter». [464] His son John included it in his 1864 «Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars» as GC 1778. [467] Dreyer included it as NGC 2782. [313]

In Halton Arp's 1966 «Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies», the galaxy NGC 2782 is listed as Arp 215. He noted: «Diffuse outer arms.» [199]

Physical Properties

NGC 2782 is a Seyfert 2 Galaxy of morphological type S_AB. The peculiar shape is due to a merger with a smaller galaxy of about a quarter of the mass. It is estimated that this took place about 200 million years ago. This merger produced two tidal arms rich in H-I. [519] With a redshift of z=0.008503 the estimated distances range from 38.6 to 41.7 Mpc. The small edge-on galaxy UGC 4872 shows a redshift of z=0.02744 and is 119 Mpc. It is much further away. [145]

«Catalogue of Principal Galaxies (PGC)», Paturel et al. 1989 [144]
NameRA [hms]Dec [dms]mTypeDim [']Btot [mag]HRV [km/s]PA [°]
PGC 26034, NGC 278209 14 05.5+40 06 52SB3.7 x 2.412.32559
PGC 2608609 14 59.2+40 03 31SB1.9 x .215.812

Finder Chart

The galaxy NGC 2782 is located in constellation Lynx. The best time for observation is November through April, when it is high in the sky during night.

Chart Galaxy NGC 2782 (Arp 215)
Galaxy NGC 2782 (Arp 215) in constellation Lynx. Chart created using SkySafari 6 Pro and STScI Digitized Sky Survey. [149, 160]

Visual Observation

762 mm Aperture: The circular mother galaxy is named NGC 2782. It shows up with a somewhat washed out but still star point shaped core. To the right of the adjacent star, a hint of nothingness or a tidal arm can be perceived briefly only indirectly a few times. — 30" SlipStream-Dobson f/3.3, Hasliberg, 14. 2. 2023, Eduard von Bergen

More Objects Nearby (±15°)

References

144Catalogue of Principal Galaxies (PGC); Paturel G., Fouque P., Bottinelli L., Gouguenheim L.; Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 80, 299 (1989); cdsarc.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/VII/119 (2021-02-18)
145SIMBAD astronomical database; simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad
149SkySafari 6 Pro, Simulation Curriculum; skysafariastronomy.com
160The STScI Digitized Sky Survey; archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/dss_form
199«Atlas Of Peculiar Galaxies», Halton Arp, 1966; Astrophysical Journal Supplement, vol. 14, p.1 (1966); DOI:10.1086/190147; Bibcode:1966ApJS...14....1A; ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/frames.html
313«A New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, being the Catalogue of the late Sir John F.W. Herschel, Bart., revised, corrected, and enlarged» Dreyer, J. L. E. (1888); Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. 49: 1–237; Bibcode:1888MmRAS..49....1D; ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1888MmRAS..49....1D/abstract (2021-04-14)
464«Catalogue of a second thousand of new nebulae and clusters of stars; with a few introductory remarks on the construction of the heavens» William Herschel, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1 January 1789; DOI:10.1098/rstl.1789.0021
467«Catalogue of nebulae and clusters of stars» John Frederick William Herschel, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1 January 1864; DOI:10.1098/rstl.1864.0001
519«Tidal Tails of Minor Mergers. II. Comparing Star Formation in the Tidal Tails of NGC 2782» Karen A. Knierman, Paul Scowen, Todd Veach, Christopher Groppi, Brendan Mullan, Iraklis Konstantopoulos, Patricia M. Knezek, and Jane Charlton; The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 774, Number 2, 2013; DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/774/2/125