NGC/IC Project Restoration Effort

===== NGC 4774 is one of the rare "ring galaxies", apparently a simple annular disk of blue stars with no obvious nucleus. There is almost always a fairly normal S0 galaxy nearby, however, and the suggestion is that it is either the stripped nucleus of the original spiral galaxy, or the object which collided with the spiral, completely disturpting it. Others of this type include NGC 7828/29, IC 298, and IC 3862, all of which see.

===== NGC 4774 48" (4/7/13): at 488x this collisional ring galaxy appeared fairly bright, fairly small, slightly elongated E-W, irregular. It appeared slightly brighter on the north side, which contained a faint stellar nucleus, but I didn't resolve the darker center. Forms a close pair with PGC 2087677, about 30" N of center. The companion, which is identified as the collider in Madore's collisional ring catalogue, appeared very faint (V = 16.7), very small, round, 9" diameter. NGC 4774 is nicknamed the "Kidney Bean Galaxy" by Zwicky in his red book (I Zw 45). It was first mentioned as a ring galaxy in 1970 by Cannon, Lloyd, Penston in "Ring galaxies" (The Observatory, Vol. 90, p. 153-154) and it is listed as a collisional ring in Madore, Nelson and Petrillo's 2009 "Atlas and Catalog of Collisional Ring Galaxies" (ApJS, Vol 181, p. 572-604). 17.5": very faint, small, round, even surface brightness. Appeared fainter than the CGCG mag of 14.6p.