NGC5945 with SN2024aduf – and with NGC friends NGC5943, NGC5947, NGC5934 and NGC5935

About the Object

This is an interesting area for galaxy maniacs in the constellation Boötes with several interesting galaxies and interacting pairs - though relatively few images can be found on astrobin.

The star of the show is NGC 5945, a barred spiral galaxy that shows quite a bit of internal structure and also features an active galactic nucleus. It is also pretty perturbed owing to its interactions with the S0 galaxy NGC5943, which exhibits  quite messy outer faint areas, probably tidal debris.

Another interacting (and much closer) pair is NGC 5934 and NGC 5935 near the right edge of the image - quite distorted owing to their ongoing tidal encounter.

Last but not least, NGC 5947, a SBbc type spiral galaxy with an AGN - so quite a bit of galaxy activity in this part of the sky!

All NGC galaxies in this area are between 250 and 270 Myr away, so not easy captures. The image is nicely rounded off with the bright 8mag red K0 star TYC 3058-261-1 (a.k.a BD +43 2503) and quite a number of faint PGC galaxies in the background.

Edit on 2025-08-06 (revision B): as pointed out by @Riedl Rudolf , there was a supernova last December in NGC5945: SN2024aduf - my image is 4 months post discovery, so the SN has faded quite considerably, but is still clearly visiblle  somewhat above the center. Very exciting!

Observation Notes

Data were taken on 2025 March 27 and 30, as well as on 2025 April 2, 3, 7, and 16

Technical Details

View the full-resolution image together with complete acquisition and processing details on AstroBin.