NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 3256. While there is no doubt about the identification of this well-known southern interacting galaxy, the optical image shows a chaotic central bulge with several bright points that could be the nucleus. However, the 2MASS Extended Source Catalog (infrared) and the XMM-Newton Serentipitous Source Catalogue (X-ray) positions agree to within a tenth of an arcsecond. Both are close to my own measurement on the 2MASS J-band image, so probably pinpoint the nucleus of the galaxy.

===== NGC 3256 13.1" (2/18/04 - Costa Rica): this disturbed galaxy appeared as a moderately bright and large oval, extended 3:2 NW-SE with dimensions 1.6'x1.2'. It contains a fairly bright 1' round core embedded in a very faint halo. NGC 3256 is the furthest north and the brightest in a group of Vela galaxies stretching south to NGC 3261, located 46' to the SSE. This group is a member of the Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster and possible outlying member of the Antlia Cluster (9 degrees north). This cluster was first catalogued as Klemola 12. On photographs NGC 3256 is a chaotic system that appears to be undergoing a spectacular merger with long tidal tails. This starburst galaxy is a superluminous infrared source with X-ray emission.