Hickson 44 - Galaxy Group
Hickson 44 is a well-known galaxy group in the constellation Leo at a distance of about 80 million light-years, which contains a total of four galaxies
with the designations NGC 3185, 3187, 3190 and 3193. They all belong to the "Leo II Group", which in turn is part of the Virgo Supercluster. Some of
the galaxies interact with each other.
NGC 3185:
This galaxy is a Hubble- type "SBa" barred spiral with a diameter of 55,000 light-years and an apparent brightness of 12.0mag.
NGC 3187:
This object is also a barred spiral, but with wide open and slightly twisted spiral arms. From the apparent size of 3.6'x1.6' we obtain a true diameter
of about 85,000 light years. With an apparent brightness of 12.9mag the galaxy is relatively faint, it also has a low surface brightness and thus belongs
to the group of LSB- galaxies (LSB:=Low Surface Brightness).
NGC 3190:
This galaxy is with an apparent brightness of 11.1mag and an apparent size of 4.4x1.5' the second brightest object of the group and was already found in 1784
by F.W. Herschel. With a diameter of 100,000 light years it is only a little smaller than the Milky Way and has a luminosity of 15 billion suns. The
galaxy is a Hubble- type "SA(s)a" galaxy and belongs to the group of spiral galaxies. Long exposure images show a twisted dust band and a very large
halo reaching far into space - signs of interaction with NGC 3187.
NGC 3193:
A small elliptical E2-type galaxy with a diameter of 46,000 light-years. The absolute magnitude is M=-21.1mag, which corresponds to a luminosity of 20
billion suns.
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NGC 3187 appears faintest and is located to the right of center. It can be seen even with 20" only as a pale patch of light without any details. On photos
you can see quite wide spiral arms, but I couldn't see any of them even with 50cm aperture.
Much more exciting is NGC 3190, which is in the center of the group. We are looking almost at the edge of this galaxy and so in my 20" at a magnification
of 270x even the dust lane was visible - only with averted vision, but clearly. :) :) With 15" aperture I also succeeded in the past, but this was much more
difficult than with 20".
Especially nice is that the group is framed by many bright stars. It's a great sight to see these faint cotton balls between the twinkling stars....
