About Hickson 31

 Deep Sky Section, Doug's Sky Notes, Observer's Log  No Responses »
Mar 052012
 

Hickson 31 is a group of Galaxies in the Constellation Eridanus near the bright star Rigel in Orion. It is one of the most Luminous Wolf-Rayet Galaxies in the night sky. It is 166 million light years away and 150 thousand light years in extent. Hickson 31 consists of NGC 1741 A-H including F1 and F2. The cluster of galaxies form a V, the brightest one in the center is NGC 1741 C, the branching galaxy attached to C in NGC 1741 A the dimmer one with a little space, the other part of the V is NGC 1741 B and the dim galaxy below the V, just above is NGC 1741 B is NGC 1741 D. Just below NGC 1741 C are NGC 1741 E and if you look closely NGC 1741 H, and below the bright star are NGC 1741 F1 and F2 and the Larger galaxy to the left of the bright star in NGC 1741 G which is also IC 399. Note below the galaxy C is realy to the left of galaxy C. The Bright star is to the left of the brightest group.