Irregular Galaxy NGC 4449 in Canes Venatici

This image was taken with an ST-6 CCD camera thru Kopernik's 20-inch F/8.1 Ritchey Chretien Cassegrain telescope. The exposure was 10 minutes and the field of view is about 5x7 arc minutes.

Quote from the Deep Sky Field Guide to Uranometria 2000:

"Bright central core or bar with nucleus or star."

NNGC 4449 is a very blue Magellanic Irregular Galaxy, containing a large amount of gas, having a complex distribution of H II regions, and undergoing active star formation. It is a member of the very nearby galaxy group called the "Canes Venatici Cloud I" by de Vaucouleurs (1975). The group includes NGC 4144, NGC 4190, NGC 4214, NGC 4244, IC 4182, and a number of Irregular dwarfs. Based upon published red-shift data, a rough distance estimate for NGC 4449 is 11 million light years. At that distance the diameter would be 19,600 light years.

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• NGC 4449
• Magnitude: 10.1
• Constellation: Canes Venatici
• RA: 12h 28m 11.3s
• Dec: +44° 05' 40" Epoch 2000
• Size (mins): 6.1' x 4.3'
• Classification: Ibm IV, Irregular, Barred, Magellanic type, Luminosity Class IV
  
  

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George Normandin, KAS

July 20th, 2002