Arp188 — Tadpole Galaxy
Galaxy in Draco
About
UGC 10214, a disrupted barred spiral in Draco about 470 million light-years away, trailing a long tail of stars, gas and dust drawn out in an encounter with a smaller galaxy. Arp listed it among galaxies with narrow filaments. Blue star clusters born in the merger include some with up to a million stars.
Imaging tips
- Only a few arcminutes long and narrow, so it is too small to frame: use a long focal length and a fine pixel scale.
- Faint for its size at 23.8 mag/arcsec², so plan many hours of broadband data to bring out the tail.
- One imager's LRGB frame used 2 h 30 min of luminance plus 50 min each of red, green and blue, about 5 hours in all, under a 26% waning Moon.
- Best around May and June, when it passes near 85° altitude from 50°N.
Facts
- Size
- 3′ × 1′
- Magnitude
- 14.0
- Coordinates
- RA 16h 6.1m, Dec +55° 26′
- Framing, APS-C
- longer than 4000 mm
- Framing, full frame
- longer than 4000 mm
- Best months
- May, Jun
- Peak altitude
- 85° from 50°N, 70° from 35°N