NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 541 48" (10/22/11): very bright, fairly large, round, sharply concentrated with an intense core 30" core surrounded by a much fainter halo, nearly 1.5' diameter. Just off the east side of the halo are two faint galaxies: PGC 86298 1' E and Minkowski's Object 0.8' NE. PGC 86298 was faint, very small, round, 10" diameter, visible continuously. Minkowski's Object was very faint, very small, round, 10" diameter, low even surface brightness. A mag 17 star 40" NE forms an equilateral triangle with the pair of galaxies. A 17th magnitude star is 1.4' NE of center and forms an equilateral triangle with the pair of faint galaxies. Minkowski's object, experiencing a burst of star formation, was actually triggered by the jet from the nucleus of NGC 541 because the body of the jet can be traced all the way to the region where the new stars are forming. 17.5" (9/19/87): fairly faint, fairly small, bright core, oval SSW-NNE. Slightly fainter than NGC 545/NGC 547 4.4' NE in the core of AGC 194. Also at midpoint with NGC 545/547 and NGC 535 3.7' SW. A bridge of stars and gas connects NGC 541 and the interacting pair NGC 545/547. Embedded in the bridge just NE of NGC 541 is "Minkowski's Object" (not seen) which has a very unusual optical spectrum. 13" (9/22/84): moderately bright, round.