NGC 3718 (Arp 214) & NGC 3729

For better or worse, this is my image of NGC 3718.  It is also known as Arp 214 and is located in the constellation Ursa Major at a distance of 52 million light-years.  It is smaller than the Milky Way at about 72,000 light-years in diameter.  This was not really planned as I actually stumbled across this object while perusing Stellarium during the afternoon before imaging. I am really happy that I got something to show for it as the weather in CT has been more horrible than usual. This object really would have benefited with twice as much time but the bad weather along with my poor FOV made it difficult.

It is an interesting looking galaxy to say the least.  NGC 3718 along with its companion, NGC 3729 to the left, and the very distant Hickson 56 Galaxy Group (HCG 56) just below makes for a great composition.  It is described as a warped barred spiral galaxy and a lenticular galaxy, looking at the twisted and extended arms we can see why.  Only 150 thousand light-years away is another spiral galaxy, NGC 3729.  Gravitational interaction with this galaxy is the likely culprit for the weird structure of NGC 3718.  The HCG 56 is a tight group of five interacting galaxies approximately 370 million light-years.  Other fainter and more distant galaxies can be found hiding in this field. My favorite part of this image is the very prominent dust lane crossing the center of NGC 3718. It was clearly visible even in the subframes.  

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NGC 3718 (Arp 214) & NGC 3729

Dates: 2-26, 3-3, 3-4
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native)
F/10 (native)
Focal Reducer: Celestron 0.7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong Luminosity (2-inch)
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Lum 279 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: -20 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, Star Exterminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

https://www.instagram.com/astroquest1/
http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
https://www.astrobin.com/users/kurtzepp/collections/
http://youtube.com/c/AstroQuest1