SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Bruce Waddington
Location of Photo:
SkyPi Remote Observatory, New Mexico
Date/Time of photo:
3 nights ending on 4/25/2025
Equipment:
12.5" Planewave scope with QSI-640ws camera
Description:
NGC 3953 is a barred spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, separated in the sky by only 1 degree from Messier 109. They are both part of a 30-50 member galaxy group of which M109 is the brightest. The two galaxies look similar to visual observers because they have obvious bar structures and roughly equivalent apparent sizes and brightness. This caused some confusion with Messier's records and it wasn't clear to later astronomers whether his catalog entry for M109 might actually have been a reference to NGC 3953. At one point, he had evidently written down the right ascension position of one paired with the declination position of the other. As a result, NGC 3953 is sometimes tagged as M109B.
