This object is a galaxy group of 5 galaxies, called Hickson 37, located in the constellation of Cancer at a declination of +30 degrees.
This is a true cluster -the 5 galaxies are all located about 320 million light years away. None appear to be close enough to each other to be interacting, but it is hard to tell for certain.
The largest and brightest galaxy, Hickson 37a, is also known as NGC 2783. It is a magnitude 12 lenticular galaxy. It spans 2 arc-minutes, which corresponds to a large diameter of 170,000 light years.
The most interesting galaxies here are 37b, the edge-on spiral with nice dust lane and inner lens, and the blue dwarf galaxy 37d.
Also note the 2 close bright blue visual pairs of stars in the frame.
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.
This is the third image of this object on Astrobin. My friend
@Gotthard Stuhm posted a
nice image of this object 2 years ago.
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