De Vaucouleurs Atlas Type: S0^o sp

Filter: B

Telescope: OHP 1.2-m
North up , East left
Field Dimensions: 8.0 x 10.7 arcminutes

RC3 Type: SB?(r:)0^o sp
RSA Type: S0₁(10)
Surface Brightness Range Displayed: 18.0-26.0 mag per square arcsec
Absolute Blue Magnitude: -20.1

De Vaucouleurs Atlas Description:

NGC 4762 is one of the most remarkable S0 galaxies in the sky. It is interesting because of the distinctive nature of its structure, which looks different from a classical edge-on S0 like NGC 3115 . NGC 4762 has a very well-defined inner disk zone flanked by a noticeably warped thicker disk. The bulge is perfectly spherical. Most interesting is that the luminosity profile along the major axis shows a series of humps, each of which is actually distinguishable in the Atlas image. Wakamatsu and Hamabe (1984) suggested that the innermost hump represents the ends of a bar oriented at an intermediate angle to the line of sight. They also suggested that the sharpest edge seen is due to the edge-on view of a lens , and that the outermost sharp edge (with the subtle warping) is due to an outer ring . The importance of this galaxy, as noted by Kormendy and Kennicutt (2004), is that if the Wakamatsu and Hamabe (1984) interpretation is correct, then NGC 4762 provides an example where a bar is not boxy in the edge-on view.