NGC 3166 / 3165 / 3169 (Gary Imm)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Sextans (Sex) · Contains: NGC 3165 · NGC 3166 · NGC 3169

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NGC 3166 / 3165 / 3169

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NGC 3166 / 3165 / 3169

This image captures a trio of galaxies located 50 million light years away in the constellation of Sextans. NGC 3165, NGC 3166, and NGC 3169 are left to right in the image above. Both of the large galaxies are about the same size as our Milky Way, with that same distance also spanning between them.

All three galaxies are interesting, but NGC 3169 is the star of the show. It has a small bright core, a large central bulge, and wide dust lanes that are silhouetted against the core with fantastic effect. Numerous star clusters are seen throughout the galaxy, together with an interesting outer arm structure. Stars streams extend far out into space.

NGC 3166 has a small bright barred core. My favorite aspect of this entire image is the bright and distinct spiral arm of the inner part of this galaxy which wraps completely around the core. The outer half of the disk is surprisingly diffuse.

The small, dim galaxy NGC 3165 has a number of star clusters and an irregular spiral shape. The two tiny bright blue objects in this galaxy look like two eyes gazing back at me.

These objects have the same red shift and radio observations show them to be inside a common shell of neutral hydrogen. So they are likely gravitationally interacting. But I don't see as much distortion as I would expect of galaxies in such close proximity to each other. Perhaps that is why these objects were not included in the Arp catalog.

As with many fields of view in space, many small galaxies are visible in the background of the image.

The refractors!
Cloudy Nights
ZWO ASI1600MM/QHY163M

Edge-on Galaxy Dust Band
Secret Deep Catalog (Complete)

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The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	2657214
PixInsight job	NPE6YBKWJ9VMLNVMUPJFYNOOX5NOOPYG
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	10h14m00s.512
RA (top/left)	10h13m12s.327
RA (top/right)	10h15m17s.652
RA (bottom/right)	10h14m48s.713
RA (bottom/left)	10h12m43s.343

Dec (center)	+03°26′47″.62
Dec (top/left)	+03°11′09″.95
Dec (top/right)	+03°22′30″.86
Dec (bottom/right)	+03°42′24″.85
Dec (bottom/left)	+03°31′03″.80

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NGC 3166 / 3165 / 3169

NGC 3166 / 3165 / 3169

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NGC 3166 / 3165 / 3169

NGC 3166 / 3165 / 3169

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