NGC 4656 and NGC 4657

NGC 4656/57, NGC 4656/4657 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It has an angular extent of 15.3 '× 2.4 ' and an apparent magnitude of 10.1 mag. The appearance of the galaxy reminiscent of the Small Magellanic Cloud. Due to its characteristic form, the galaxy is sometimes jokingly called hockey stick. The galaxy appears to stand in the past in strong interaction with the a little further southeast, large neighbor galaxy NGC 4631st The upshot of this is likely to be a bright, slightly offset appearing nodes on the northeast side of the galaxy. This bright node was cataloged in the discovery of the galaxy on March 20, 1787 by William Herschel as a separate object, which meant that he was later also reported in the New General Catalogue under a separate entry as NGC 4657.