NGC 3729

NGC 3729 is a peculiar barred spiral galaxy, displaying a bright ring inside of a faint outer halo. There is also a brighter patch in the eastern portion of the halo. A little to the west (right) is the highly distorted, 10.6 magnitude spiral galaxy NGC 3718. It is very likely that these two galaxies are interacting. Several more very distant interacting galaxies are visible below NGC 3718. These are from the west, PGC 35615 (magnitude 16.9), PGC 35618 (magnitude 15.8) and PGC 35620 (magnitude 15.0). The edge-on spiral to the east (left) of these is PGC 35631 (magnitude 16.1), while just to the west is the elipitical galaxy PGC 35609 (magnitude 16.4). This small group is known as Hickson 56.

Combination of 1, 5 minute exposure with a red filter, 2, 5 minute exposures with a green filter, and 3, 5 minute exposures with a blue filter.
LN2 cooled 2k x 2k CCD. 30" f/3.0 cassegrain telescope at prime focus.