NGC4302 and NGC4298 – A Pair of Spiral Galaxies

This Pair of Galaxies NGC4302 & NGC4298 shine at 12.7 & 11.4 magnitude.

The edge-on galaxy is called NGC 4302, and the tilted galaxy is NGC 4298. These galaxies look quite different because

we see them angled at different positions on the sky. From our view on Earth, researchers report an inclination of 90 degrees

for NGC 4302, which is exactly edge on. NGC 4298(right) is tilted 70 degrees.

They are actually very similar in terms of their structure and contents.

Both galaxies are approximately 55 million light-years away. They reside in the constellation Coma Berenices and both were discovered in 1784 by astronomer William Herschel.

The edge-on NGC 4302 is about 87,000 light-years in diameter, which is about 60 percent the size of the Milky Way.

It is about 110 billion solar masses, approximately one-tenth of the Milky Way’s mass.

The tilted NGC 4298 is about 45,000 light-years in diameter, about one third the size of the Milky Way.

At 17 billion solar masses, it is less than 2 percent of the Milky Way galaxy’s 1 trillion solar masses.

There are many fainter background galaxies visible as well.

I captured this with my Explore Scientific 102mm Triplet APO refractor, Bisque ME Mount, And QHY183C Cooled Color Cmos Camera, 275 minutes of integrations time(55 x 300sec subs) 4 hours & 35 mins of exposure over two nights 03-06-2021 & 03-20-2021.