Our galaxy of the month this month is the tight triplet of galaxies in Pisces around NGC 470. I must thank Mark Stuart for recommending this group to me. The triplet includes NGC 467, NGC 470 and NGC 474. All three galaxies were found by William Herschel. NGC 470 and NGC 474 in 1784 and then NGC 467 a year later in 1785.

NGC 470 is a disturbed system and was included by Vorontosv-Velyaminov as number 948 in his extended catalogue. NGC 474 is also a disturbed system and Arp included it as Arp 227. It is not clear whether Arp meant Arp 227 to include both NGC 470 and NGC 474, or just NGC 474.

Arp 227 is a shell galaxy and appears to be in a physical pair with NGC 470. The pair lie at about 100 million light-years from us. NGC 467 is also a shell galaxy but is much further away than the others, although some older sources do suggest it is gravitationally part of the NGC 474 group. NGC 467 is also suggested to be a lenticular galaxy.