HCG 37

Hickson Compact Group

28 May

Written By Willem Jan Drijfhout

HCG37
5’ x 5’ | 0.3”/px | 994 × 994 px

Cancer
RA 09h 13m 35.3s DEC +30° 01’ 25.5”

HCG37 is a very compact quintet located in the constellation Cancer. The five galaxies all have about the same distance to Earth of approximately 300 million light-years. The brightest galaxy (a) has an NGC listing under number NGC 2783. It has an angular size of 1.3’ x 1,1’ and an apparent magnitude of 13.6. Perhaps the most striking galaxy is the second brightest (b). An edge-on spiral galaxy with visible dust lane. The bright star at the bottom is TYC1957-223-1, a 9th magnitude star at a distance of 2951 light-years and has no relationship with the galaxy group. Details of all five galaxies are listed in the table below.

    
        Ltr
        Primary Designation
        Also Known As
        Type
        RA (J2000)
        Dec (J2000)
        Distance (Mly)
        Angular Size
        App. Mag. (B)
      

    
        a
        NGC 2783
        UGC 4859 · PGC 26018
        E7
        09h 14m 20s
        +29° 59′ 36″
        ~320
        1.3′ × 1.1′
        13.6
      

        b
        UGC 4856
        PGC 26012
        SB_x
        09h 13m 32s
        +30° 00′ 00″
        ~308
        1.89′ × 0.33′
        14.5
      

        c
        MCG +5-22-020
        PGC 26004
        S0a
        09h 13m 37s
        +29° 59′ 58″
        ~290
        0.44′ × 0.31′
        15.1
      

        d
        MCG +5-22-016
        PGC 26009
        SBdm
        09h 13m 33s
        +30° 00′ 51″
        ~328
        0.21′ × 0.15′
        15.3
      

        e
        MCG +5-22-018
        PGC 26006
        E0
        09h 13m 34s
        +30° 02′ 23″
        ~335
        0.35′ × 0.34′
        15.8
      

  
    Coordinates & photometry: Hickson et al. (1989, ApJS 70, 687); Hickson et al. (1992, ApJ 399, 353); HEASARC HCGGALAXY; NASA/IPAC NED.
    Distances derived from individual heliocentric radial velocities (vₛ ≈ 6,300–7,400 km/s) using H₀ = 70 km/s/Mpc.
    Angular sizes from B = 24.5 mag/arcsec² isophotes. Apparent magnitudes in B band. Table created by Claude AI.
  

Imaging

**Location** Remote hosting facility Roboscopes in Fregenal de la Sierra, Spain (38°N 6°W)

Telescope · Planewave CDK14 (2563mm @ f/7.2), Optec Gemini
Mount · 10Micron GM2000HPS, unguided
Camera · Moravian C3-61000 Pro (full frame)
Filters · Chroma 2” Luminance unmounted
Accessoires · Compulab Tensor I-22, Dragonfly, Pegasus UPB v2
Software · Voyager Advanced, Viking, MW4, Astroplanner, PixInsight

Capture date(s) · 12 and 17 April 2026
Settings · -10°C, gain 0, bin 1
Exposure · 10 × 300s @ Gain 0 (50 min)
Processing · WBPP, DBE, BXT, MAS, NXT, invert, crop

CDK14C3-61000ProGM2000

Willem Jan Drijfhout

HCG 37

Imaging

Small Steps Create Big Shifts