NGC 3718 Warped Spiral Galaxy  
Scope: Deep Sky Instruments RC10c 254mm @ f/7.4 Corrected Ritchey Chretien  
Camera: Q453HR CCD Labs- One Shot Color Camera 
Total Exposure: 8.0 hours 32 x 15 min. unbinned
March 2011: Chico, California, USA 
Comments: Discovered by W. Herschel in April 1789 NGC 3718 is located in the constellation of the big dipper and is to be categorized as a Seyfert galaxy. It holds 8.2 by 3.5 arc minutes and appears to be 10mag bright for the visual observer. While the galaxy is in a distance of some 52 millon light years from earth, it's warped spiral shape is pertubated by the neighbourghing galaxy NGC 3729, which is devided from 3718 by 150,000 light years. Both are therefor interacting in a gravitational way, like the fainter galaxy couple south to 3718. These group of galaxies (Hickson 56 by name) is more than 400 millon lightyears away from our planet..  

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