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Details:
4 days after crossing the center of the Beehive open cluster (M44) Mars does the same thing to a couple of galaxies 2.5° to the east. Mars took around 2 hours to cross over the elliptical galaxies NGC 2672 and 2673. With Mars so bright (mag 1.0) and the galaxies so dim (magnitudes 11.6 and 13.1, respectively), plus dawn interfering with the last half of the passage, I stopped the sequence a bit short so the galaxies stayed visible just ahead of Mars' glare.
NGC 2672 and 2673 aren't all that exciting in themselves, being ellipticals and visually small, yet they also constitute Arp 167. Observatory photos show 2673 as oddly distorted, but it's unclear whether they are neighbors with bigger 2672 slowly tearing 2673 apart, or they merely lie along the same line of sight whereby 2673 is alone in space and some mechanism internal to it is gradually disrupting it.
Images:
#1: Vicinity around Mars and the 2 galaxies (annotated).
#2: Closeups of first and last subs showing Mars' movement over 71 minutes.
... If I calculated correctly, it moved 2.5 arcminutes in the interim.
... The galaxies 2672 & 2673 are underlined in green (R to L).
#3: Animated gif showing Mars' movement over 71 minutes.
Photo data:
Panasonic G9, Celestron 5.5" Comet Catcher, iOptron GEM45G
... 46 x (f/3.64, 60 sec, ISO 1600) = 46 mins
... N up W right, FOV 65' x 42'
... stacking: Deep Sky Stacker; animation: SSuite GIF Animator; editing: Paint Shop Pro 2023
... date: Oct 15, 2026 3:50am-5:11am MDT (= 09:50-11:11 UT)
Photographer's website:
No URL provided.
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