Described by Zwicky as "pair of neutral equal spherical compacts, separation = 12" southwest-northeast". In Arp's category of "appearance of fission".

400/500mm - 18" (10/29/11): faint, fairly small, elongated 2:1 SW-NE, 0.4'x0.2'. Fairly even surface brightness but occasionally a very small brighter nucleus popped out at 285x. The double system or nuclei were not resolved, though. An uncatalogued double star with components mag 11/12 at ~10" separation is located 10' NW.

900/1200mm - 48" (11/1/13): VV 186 = Arp 249 was clearly resolved into two cores at 488x, encased in adjacent halos. VV 186b, the southwestern galaxy, appeared moderately bright, very small, round, 10" diameter, high even surface brightness. Forms a very close pair with VV 186b, just 12" between centers. A mag 17 star is off the SW side [18" from center]. VV 186b, the northeast component, appeared fairly faint, small, round, very small bright core surrounded by a very small halo. An extremely faint and small glow was detected (part of a plume or jet on images) off the east side [18" from center]. UGC 12914/12915 = Taffy Galaxies lies 35' NNE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb