Hickson 99, A Compact Group of 5 Galaxies in Pegasus

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A 15 minute exposure taken with an STL-1301E CCD camera thru Kopernik's 20 inch telescope. The field of view is about 12x14 arc minutes, with North at the top.

Quote from Paul Hickson's Atlas of Compact Groups of Galaxies:

"Group 99 is an accordant quintet containing a close pair of interacting galaxies (B and C). Galaxy C has a very pronounced bar and ring. Galaxy A (with a bright star) has an interesting spiral structure."

The Hickson 99 Galaxy Group is in the Constellation of Pegasus. The largest member of the group is a spiral galaxy seen nearly edge-on. It was the host for Type II Supernova SN 2006jb discovered on October 11th, 2006 by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search group. Unfortunately it had faded from view when the Kopernik image was taken at 3:00 UT on November 22, 2006. Astronomers D. Bettoni and G. Fasano of Padova Observatory in Padova, Italy have discovered that galaxies B & C are surrounded by a common halo of stars.

Based on their red shift, a rough distance estimate for the Hickson 99 galaxies is 457 million light years.

Hickson 99A (UGC 12897) Magnitude: 14.8 Constellation: Pegasus RA: 00h 00m 38.2s Dec: +28° 23 '06" Epoch 2000 Size (mins): 1.1' x 0.4' Classification: Sab,  Edge-on Spiral	Hickson 99B (UGC 12899) Magnitude: 14.7 RA/Dec: see Hickson 99A Size (mins): 1.0' x 0.9' Classification: E, Elliptical
Hickson 99C (MCG +05-01-021) Magnitude: 15.82 Size (mins): 0.8' x 0.4' Classification: SBc, Barred Spiral	Hickson 99D Magnitude: 17.44 Size (mins): 0.72' x 0.46' Classification: S0a, Lenticular
Hickson 99E Magnitude: 17.84 Size (mins): 0.38' x 0.30' Classification: SO, Lenticular

George Normandin, KAS

November 28th, 2006