Then I noticed the core was closely bracketed by two faint "stars -- one just off the SE edge and a second star jammed up against the NW end. This probably contributed to the impression of elongation. I had a suspicion these might not be stars due to their locations and checking NED the "star" at the SE end is a virtually stellar galaxy, V Zw 230 (a classification by Zwicky of compact galaxies), just 22" SE of the center of UGC 1841. It turns out that UGC 1841 is a well-studied Seyfert (radio) galaxy with a designation 3C 66B and a short jet extending from the nucleus has been detected in radio, x-ray, infrared and optical wavelengths. SIMBAD shows 337 journal references for this galaxy. The star at the NW edge of the core is just 14" from the center.

Two additional UGC galaxies lie to the NW, UGC 1837 is just 2.7' NW, just beyond a mag 11 star close NW of UGC 1841 and UGC 1832 is 8.5' NW. The blazar, 3C 66A (V = 13.8-15.6) lies 6.4' NW. This entire remarkable field is at the northern outskirts of AGC 347 (similar redshift), just 40' N of NGC 891!

400/500mm - 18" (11/13/07): UGC 1841 is the brightest of three UGC galaxies in the field had a very strange appearance at 225x. The galaxy is dominated by a sharply concentrated 25"x20" core that appears to be elongated NW-SE. Surrounding the core is a much larger, low surface brightness halo at least 2' in diameter. The galaxy appears odd with the contrast between the dim halo and bright core and it happens to be sandwiched between mag 8.4 HD 146674 1.4' N of center and a mag 10.9 star 1.3' S! The glare of these stars make it is difficult to gauge the edge of the halo, but it appears to extend perhaps 3/4 of the way between the stars.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb