This unlikely pair rides high in the March evening sky, and shows a strong color contrast between two very different objects. On the left is the 11.6th magnitude edge on NGC4302, spanning a full 5.8 arcmins in length, but only .8 wide. The contorted dust lane and straddling dust tints the whole galaxy yellowish from interstellar reddening. On the right is NGC4298, an Sc spiral with a yellow core and blue arms. While it is only 3 arcmins long, it is bright at magnitude 11.3 and sports clumps of stars in the arms which are ill defined.

Just to the upper left of NGC4302, a faint anonymous galaxy MAC 1221+1437 lies, probably a background object. It is about 18th magnitude.

Instrument:  12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian
Platform:  Astrophysics 1200 QMD
CCD Camera:  SBIG ST7E w/Enhanced Cooling
Exposure:  LRGB = 60:20:20:36 (RGB Binned 2x2)
Filters:  RGB Tricolor
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing FMHW = 2.1 arcsec, Transparency 8/10
Outside Temperature:  0 C
CCD Temperature:  -35 C
Processing:  Maxim DL, Photoshop, AIP4WIN, PW Pro.