2020 has been kinda lean pickings
and like many of you I'm sure, I have a pretty long list of potential targets for various times in the year. However, not living in 300 clear nights a year Chile
and no fully automated remote rig, not to mention my scope is not even in my own backyard
, so requires travel back and forth...inevitably time obviously gets away and so many candidates pass slowly by and get missed
. Anyway, ever since I saw the
HST version of this compact galaxy group, in Pisces Austrinus..it went on my list
At around 100 million light yeras, the galaxies are not of large apparent size (around 1 or 2 arc min each). The main interacting trio, comprised of two elliptical galaxies, NGC7173/6 and a distorted spiral NGC7174, are joined by an intriguing looking edge on Seyfert2 galaxy, NGC 7172, which looks like a coffee bean (or cheeseburger). The whole group is connected by a subtle hub of faint galactic steams and along with the big bright mag6, F class star, HD20953, some intra cluster light also contributes to the glowing vista.
HCG90 (click on image and pan around with your cursor)
To zoom around finding lots of galaxies, the full resolution version can be seen
here
Mike