At 488x, the core (assigned a MAC designation in Megastar) appeared moderately bright, elongated 3:2 SW-NE, 0.3'x0.2', fairly high surface brightness. Extending to the northeast is a large, low surface brightness halo, which appeared irregular and knotty. This offset halo increased the overall size of the galaxy to ~1.2'x0.8'. On the east end of the halo is a nearly stellar 16-17th mag knot [SDSS J131245.19+224959.0 at 50" ENE of the core]. A second low surface brightness knot is at the northeast edge [SDSS J131244.92+225018.0 at 1.0' NE of the core]. A third very low contrast knot is 40" NE of the core (SDSS J131243.49+225018.1). The SDSS image reveals these are the brightest of a large number of blue knots.

PGC 1677429 = 2MASX J13124913+2251519 lies 2.6' NE and appeared faint, small, round, 18" diameter. No redshift is given in NED or SDSS for this galaxy (brighter member of an interacting pair with tidal tails), so I don't know if it's related to VV 559, although it's aligned with its major axis.

900/1200mm - 48" (4/7/13): I ran across this object in Vorontsov-Velyaminov's paper "Nine enigmatic new objects" (Soviet Astronomy Letters, vol. 1, p.23, 1975). He nicknames it the "Sign" and describes "Four condensations are so arranged as to resemble a cross. The knot at the apex is a double, while the one at the bottom of the cross is elongated and larger than the others. The space between them is filled with bright diffuse radiation. Especially remarkable is the fact that this radiation gives the impression of streamers everywhere directed towards the brighter condensation. The diffuse and amorphous appearances of all the knots indicates that this complex is galactic in nature." In his 1975 "Atlas of Interacting Galaxies, Part 2", the nickname "Apparition" is given.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb