| Object: ARP 248 (Wild’s Triplet) | Date: 2016 April 9 |
| Peculiarity: Appearance of fission. | |
| Constellation: Virgo | Time & altitude: 23.50 UT 32º |
| Catalogue data: | Seeing (5 high): 3/5 |
| R.A: 11h 47m | Transparency (5 high): 4/5 |
| Dec: -3º 50 | Telescope: 0.5m f4.1 Dob. |
| Magnitudes: 14.1, 15.3 & 15.9 | Eyepiece: 8mm Ethos x260 |
| Galaxy sizes (mins): 3.1×0.7, 0.8×0.5 & 0.5×0.4 | Filters: None |
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Notes: Difficult. It is 6 mins S of a glaring 7.6m star and it is hard to keep it out of view. MCG-1-30-33 (14.1m) could be seen on-and-off with DV as an irregular patch. The structure was only apparent using AV. I have drawn it as two overlapping ovals both aligned EW. These appear to correspond to tidal tails streaming away in opposed directions. MCG-1-30-32 (15.3m) was a similar single EW oval, but was only glimpsed with AV. MCG-1-30-34 (15.9m) was not seen, nor was there any sign of the bridges of material between the three member galaxies. |
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