UGC 3697 - INTEGRAL SIGN GALAXY in Camelopardalis
Date: August 12, 2010
Time: 09:35am UT 02:35am local time (UT-7hs)
Telescope: 24" (61cm.) f/4
Observer: Leo Cavagnaro
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| Click on the image to enlarge |
Finder chart
How to find it,
About 10° 20' west-northwest of the star ρ (Rho) Ursae Majoris(visual magnitude 4.8).
About 5° east-northeast of the star HD42818(visual magnitude 4.8).
Stars in map up to visual magnitude 6.0
The Integral Sign Galaxy (UGC 3697, also MCG 12-7-28) is a low-mass Sd spiral that exhibits a "superthin" disk morphology despite a prounced gasous and stellar warp. UGC 3697 is part of a small galaxy group that includes the peculiar elliptical UGC 3714 and several dwarf galaxies. New observations have, for the first time, revealed strong evidence that an accretion event rather than tidal effects are responsible for the present morphology of UGC 3697 (see paper "Clues on the Structure and Composition of Galactic Disks from Studies of ‘Superthin’ Spirals: the Case of UGC 3697" by Lynn D. Matthews Juan M. Uson (2004).
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DSS image of UGC 3697, the Integral Sign galaxy. North is up.
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59x - The galaxy, which is visible through this eyepiece, is easy to find using a triangule of stars easily visible to the unaided eye, among them 42 and 43 Camelopardalis. The field shows two bright stars that stand out from the rest of the stars there. Roughly at the middle of an imaginary line that connects both bright stars we can find this galaxy. To see it we must observe for awhile in the zone, showing up like a tiny and smooth bright line. Averted vision is necessary to see it clearly being faint at this low magnification. Always with averted vision its central part seems to appear a little brighter and wider. The overall shape showed in photographs is not discerned at this magnification.
90x - At this magnification the galaxy is much earier to see. It looks clearly elongated and its ends are fainter. The left end (see picture at the beginning of this report) seems to be a little wider than the other one. The nearby (in the eyepiece field) galaxy PGC 20398 is clearly visible appearing round in shape and with a brighter core.
270x - The view through this eyepiece is very interesting because the brighter stars are out of the field so they do not interfiere with the observation of this Sbp type galaxy. Now, the galaxy starts to show its real morphology, with its peculiar shape. Part of its central region looks slighltly brighter being averted vision necessary to see this. Moreover, the ends of UGC 3697 look somewhat curved.