UGC 5341 - Superthin Galaxy
UGC 5341 is a spiral galaxy that is also known as a "superthin" galaxy. This category includes galaxies that are extremely narrow - and
appear much thinner than normal edge-on galaxies when viewed from the side.
The galaxy itself has a redshift of z=0.025 and is around 350 million light-years away from us. Every second the distance increases by
another 7,500 kilometers. Its brightness is 15.5 Bmag, the apparent size is 2.5'x0.2'. From this, the true diameter can be determined to
be 260,000 light-years - UGC 5341 is thus more than twice as large as our Milky Way.
To the south there are several other faint galaxies, which are also at the same distance. Of particular interest are the two brighter galaxies
Leda 28688/28692, which interact with each other.
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UGC 5341 is a difficult object in my 20" f/3 telescope. Even with averted vision, I could not immediately recognize the galaxy. It only
emerged from the dark background after some time. Nevertheless, it appeared very elongated with an elongation of 8-10:1.
The other galaxies were easier to observe - especially the interacting pair was well visible at 270x.
