NGC 5514

Published comments

Sulentic & Tifft (1973)

The RNGC (Sulentic and Tifft 1973) notes that this is a 14.5 mag galaxy. Their coded description reads EL,BM,FILAMENTS F END (SWOLLEN).

Modern observations

[amastro] The _Other_ Antennae Galaxy - NGC 5514

I recently attended the Peach State Star Gaze (PSSG) from April 6 to the 9th at Indian Springs (Ga). Although the skies were generally mediocre at best, I made a number of "deep" observations of some rather unusual objects. Perhaps the strangest was NGC 5514, the "other" antennae galaxy. I stumbled upon this little gem while generating abstracts on the much more famous NGC 4038/9. The DSS image was truly remarkable, so I placed it high on my observing list.

I was lucky to use Vic Menard's relatively new 22" f/4.1 Starmaster with GOTO (wooo..). I used to love the views through his old 20-inch f/6.2, but this new instrument has great optics and GOTO to boot. After hunting down all sorts of fun galaxies, we quickly found LoTr5 without much difficulty (with a 16mm Nagler + O III). NGC 5514 was now riding high in the sky, and it was a good as it was going to get. At 200x, an uneven "v" shape was apparent, the apex at a PA ~ 90 degrees. The seeing was fairly good, so the power was upped to 400x. Eric Shelton was the first to look, and he remarked that he thought he saw a wispy jet trending due east from the apex. I quickly took a look and sure enough, a low contrast plume was visible extending due east about 3' , and slightly curving at the end (south). I pulled out my DSS image, and sure enough it was an "antenna" (the other much too faint even for the DSS image).

For those interested: PSSG - 60 miles SSE of Atlanta, Ga L(m) ~ 5.8 to 6.0 (6-April-00)

Later we tried to see the 'real' antennae on NGC 4038/9 with the AAC's 24-inch, but without much luck that night. But Saturday night (4/8), after the passing of a strong cold front the skies were much clearer. By 2 a.m., the skies were at least 0.5 mag deeper and many observers could easily trace out the long narrow plumes in the 24-inch (at 304x).

Next: fun with M82

- Rich Jakiel