400/500mm - 18" (3/13/10): faint, fairly small, slightly elongated E-W, 0.5'x0.4'. While viewing this interacting pair of disrupted galaxies (Arp 55), I occasionally noticed an extension (companion galaxy) or knot at the west edge. A couple of times it appeared resolved from the main glow as an extremely faint and small glow. Located 5' NNE of mag 9.4 HD 79466.

900/1200mm - 48" (4/6/13): Arp 55 = "Grasshopper" is a merger of two galaxies with a single tidal tail on the east side. At 488x it appeared bright, moderately large, very unusual appearance with a mottled main body elongated 2:1 SW-NE, ~30"x15". On the southwest end is Arp 55S = PGC 3098124, a nearly stellar knot that is the nucleus of a merging, interacting companion. A faint, thin "arm" or "tail" is attached at the NE end and extends ~20"x5" straight south. The tail brightens slightly (perhaps an HII knot or another merged galaxy) at the south end. This knot has the designation SDSS J091556.72+441937.5. On the SDSS the tail curves sharply west on the south end, but this extension was not seen. A mag 16.2 star is 45" W.

SDSS J091559.93+442034.6 = LEDA 2242096 lies 0.9' NE and appeared as a very faint (V = 17.1), very low surface brightness patch, 15" diameter. Arp called this object a "filament" of Arp 55 in his 1967 paper "Peculiar Galaxies and Radio Sources" (ApJ, 148, 321). LEDA 82353 is 1.4' NE and appeared fairly faint, fairly small, slightly elongated E-W, 20"x15". LEDA 2242434 lies 2.3' NW, just 27" W of a mag 14.7 star. It appeared fairly faint, fairly small, slightly elongated E-W, 20"x15". These three galaxies have a identical redshifts as Arp 55, so are part of a small group.