Arp248 — Wild's Triplet
Galaxy in Virgo
About
Wild's Triplet, in Virgo about 200–245 million light-years away. Two spirals are interacting, joined by a tidal bridge of stars, gas and dust where new clusters form, while the third is a more distant companion. Arp listed it among galaxies with the appearance of fission.
Imaging tips
- Only about 2′ across, so it is too small to frame: use a long focal length and a fine pixel scale.
- Faint at 22.9 mag/arcsec², and galaxies need broadband. One imager took 5 h 10 min of LRGB, with 190 minutes of luminance and 40 each of R, G and B.
- Between the two interacting galaxies sits an edge-on spiral that is unrelated, billions of light-years farther away.
- Best from February to April; it peaks near 36° altitude from 50°N.
Facts
- Size
- 2′ × 1′
- Magnitude
- 13.5
- Coordinates
- RA 11h 46.7m, Dec −3° 51′
- Framing, APS-C
- longer than 4000 mm
- Framing, full frame
- longer than 4000 mm
- Best months
- Feb, Mar, Apr
- Peak altitude
- 36° from 50°N, 51° from 35°N