NGC 3718, NGC 3729, and Hickson 56 (rhedden)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa) · Contains: NGC 3718 · NGC 3729

NGC 3718, NGC 3729, and Hickson 56, rhedden

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NGC 3718, NGC 3729, and Hickson 56

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NGC 3718, NGC 3729, and Hickson 56

NGC 3718, also known as Arp 214, is the large, distorted galaxy on the right side of this image. Lying about 52 million light years away in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major, it spans 8.1' x 4.0' and shines at an overall magnitude of 10.6. Its neighbor, NGC 3729, is a nearby spiral galaxy that interacts with NGC 3718 and may be responsible for its distorted shape. At the upper right corner of the image is a group of five galaxies that form Hickson Compact Group #56 (also Arp 322). This group consists of (from left to right) PGC 35631 (mag. 16.2), PGC 35620 (mag. 15.0), PGC 35618 (mag. 15.8), PGC 35615 (mag. 16.9), and PGC 35609 (mag. 16.4).

This image was taken on three different nights, and the seeing was average to poor on all of them. Lack of a bright guide star made the data acquisition even more challenging. However, the image still turned out well by my standards because of the long integration time. Deconvolution was applied selectively to the cores of NGC 3718 and NGC 3729 to sharpen the details.

The first revision has a very aggressive stretch, maybe too aggressive for some peoples' tastes, but I wanted to bring out as many background galaxies as possible.

The second revision has a less aggressive stretch and an adjustment to the color balance, based on some feedback I got on Cloudy Nights. I actually like the first one better, but it is a matter of personal taste at this point.

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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	1031701
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
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NGC 3718, NGC 3729, and Hickson 56

NGC 3718, NGC 3729, and Hickson 56

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Image Index:

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NGC 3718, NGC 3729, and Hickson 56

NGC 3718, NGC 3729, and Hickson 56

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