NGC 4594 - SAa sp

NGC 4594

De Vaucouleurs Atlas Type: SAa sp

Filter: B

Telescope: KPNO 0.9-m
North up , East left
Field Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.5 arcminutes

RC3 Type: SA(s?)a sp
RSA Type: Sa+/Sb-
Surface Brightness Range Displayed: 16.0-26.0 mag per square arcsec
Absolute Blue Magnitude: -21.6

De Vaucouleurs Atlas Description:

From the appearance of the slightly tilted disk, there can be little doubt that this is a largely nonbarred galaxy. There is no global spiral pattern evident in this disk, just weakly patchy flocculent structures. In the B-V color index map, the sharp near-side dust lane is a very red feature, but the flocculent structure in the disk shows a bluish tint which is somewhat diluted by the bulge on the far side. The blue zone is actually ring-like and may be a weaker version of what is seen in the similarly bulge-dominated galaxy NGC 7217 . Other dust structures are present in the inner parts of the disk. There is no evidence for a star-forming ring or dust ring in the inner disk, thus we can rule out the (r) variety for this galaxy.

NGC 4594 has been the subject of many studies because of its large bulge-to-disk ratio. Its populous globular cluster system has also attracted considerable interest (e.g., Forbes, Grillmair, and Smith 1997; Rhode and Zepf 2004).