This
Astrobin Debut Object is a galaxy group of 5 galaxies, called Hickson 83, located 0.75 billion light years away in the constellation of Hercules at a declination of +6 degrees.
This one of the smallest, faintest, and least spectacular of the Hickson clusters.
Hickson 83 is a true cluster as all are about the same distance away, although it is hard to see any interaction among them and in reality they could be many millions of light years apart.
This is a magnitude 14 cluster – the brightest galaxy (83a) is magnitude 15. The galaxies are about 50,000 light years in diameter. I don’t see any spirals here except possible for 83c.
The Hickson catalog is a collection of 100 galaxy groups, established by Paul Hickson in 1982. Hickson compact galaxy groups are tightly spaced and somewhat isolated from other galaxies. A typical Hickson group has 4 galaxies, but some have up to 8. You can see more about Hickson galaxy groups in my
Astrobin Hickson Collection.
Comments