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Abell 194 is a small cluster of galaxies lying about 300 million light years away beyond the constellation Cetus. One of the brighter galaxies of this cluster, NGC 541, has an interesting companion called Minkowski's Object after its discovery in 1958 by Rudolph Minkowski. NGC 541 is the right most of the three brightest galaxies in the upper left area of the image which have their own history, evident by the star trail between them. The object, also known as Arp 133, Its obvious blue color contrasts with the other galaxies in the cluster, and quite more with the tiny red background object nearby. The reason for the blueness is due to its relative youth and that it is made up of only blue super-giants. It is thought that a powerful radio frequency jet eminating from NGC 541 actually created the 1.9 million stars of this galaxy only 7.5 million years ago from the interstellar medium nearby. There are many old and new articles on the web concerning this curious subject. I am becoming quite interested in the oddballs, the unusual subjects, scattered through the sky, and really enjoy chasing them with my small scopes and the DSLR. Some have proven beyond even a smudge, but others like 133 have popped right out, albeit a bit grainy and small. That's what this hobby is about...doing your best with the tools at hand.
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