NGC 3718, NGC 3723, and Hickson 56

Christmas in June? No, just galaxy NGC 3718 making me think of that time of year. It's surrounded by other galactic treasures including Hickson Compact Group 56 and NGC 3729.

Acquisition, focusing, guiding and control of Paramount MX mount with TheSkyX. Focus with Optec DirectSync motor and controller. Automation with CCDCommander. Equipment control with PrimaLuce Labs Eagle 3 Pro computer. All pre-processing and processing in PixInsight. Acquired from my SkyShed in Guelph. No moon, average or better transparency, and average seeing. Data acquired April 2 – May 16, 2020.

Luminance: Sky-Watcher Esprit 150 f/7 refractor and QHY 16200-A camera with Optolong UV/IR filter
Chrominance: Takahashi FSQ-106 ED IV @ f/3.6 and QHY367C one-shot colour camera with Optolong L-Pro filter

Luminance: 139 x 10m = 1,390m
Chrominance: 289x 3m = 867m
Total: 37hr 37m

Copyright: Ron Brecher