This
Astrobin Debut Object is a galaxy group of 4 galaxies, called Hickson 33, located 360 million light years away in the constellation of Taurus at a declination of +18 degrees. 3 of these galaxies are ellipticals and 1 is a spiral. This is one of the toughest Hickson objects to see because of the relatively bright Milky Way stars in the foreground.
Unlike many Hickson objects, this is a true galaxy cluster and all of them are at the same distance away. I see possible signs of interaction in these galaxies. The star haloes of a few of the ellipticals seem slight distorted, and the spiral has a bright star cloud to the right of center.
The brightest galaxy, 33a, is a 15.4 magnitude galaxy which spans 40 arc-seconds. This corresponds to a diameter of 80,000 light years.
The largest galaxy is 33c, the spiral, which is hiding behind a Milky Way star. This galaxy is 100,000 light years in diameter.
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.
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