This week I was able to image the Hickson 44 galactic group. A Hickson Compact Group (HCG for short) is a collection of four or five gravitational bound galaxies in close physical proximity to one another, published in a list of 100 objects (462 galaxies) by the Canadian astronomer Paul Hickson in 1982. These groups usually contain large quantities of diffuse gas and are dominated by dark matter. Strong galaxy interactions result and merging is expected to lead to the formation of one, most likely elliptical, larger galaxy.

In the center is NGC 3190, a spiral galaxy 70 million light years away seen edge on and sometimes called the galactic potato chip. Below and to the right is NGC 3187, an S shaped spiral galaxy. Below and to the left is NGC 3185, another barred, spiral galaxy and above is NGC 3193, an elliptic galaxy. Two dwarf spiral galaxies named PGC 86788 (bottom) and PGC 2806871 (upper right) are also part of the group but are not included in the Hickson catalog.

The galaxies in the Hickson Compact Group 44 are close enough that they interact with each other gravitationally. This causes the individual galaxies to become distorted and in some cases even share material.

If you look closely, you may notice a faint halo around NGC 3190, a considerable warping of its dust lane on the side nearer to NGC 3187, and also a very subtle smudge of light between NGC 3190 and NGC 3193, which is a bridge of stars being shared between the two giants as they embrace in their cosmic dance. Finally, NGC 3187 shows numerous tidal tails well above and below its disk plane, which are also signs of tidal encounters between members of HCG 44.

reference http://annesastronomynews.com/annes-picture-of-the-day-galaxy-group-hcg-44/

Imaged over two evenings.

ASI1600mm-c on an MN190

65 x 60s R,G,B unity gain

270 x 60s L gain 75

I dithered during capture and tried drizzling the lum, but in the end the drizzle image was no better.

->See latest revision - got drizzle on Lum to work, then just upsampled RGB