Galaxy group Arp 316

With the aliases Hickson 44, the Leo I group and the NGC3190 group, this compact group of interacting galaxies is around 100 million light years away in the direction of Leo.

North is to the right in this image. The spiral galaxy to lower left is NGC3185, the bright edge-on spiral with the prominent dust lane is NGC3189/90 (for some reason this was given two NGC numbers), the elongated S-shape galaxy is NGC3187 and the elliptical is NGC3193. It is thought that these four are gravitationally interacting, causing the tidal tails and bright regions of star formation. They are all around magnitude 11 or 12, except for 3187 which is a little fainter at 13.4.

A couple of smudges, one near the top of the image and one near bottom-centre, mark PGC2806871 (mag 16.3) and PGC86788 (17.3) respectively, while there is a tiny edge-on  galaxy between 3190 and 3193. (PGC = Principal Galaxy Catalogue).

Exposure times were 7.5 hours Luminosity and 25 hours total RGB.

Equipment: Planewave CDK-14 corrected Dall-Kirkham scope, FLI Proline P09000 CCD camera and Astrodon E-series filters. Guided using a Monster MOAG off-axis guider and Starlight Xpress UltraStar Pro guide camera.