Galaxies in Hydra (2014)

I’m not totally sure what the intended target for these observations was. Probably none of these galaxies. What was being looked for here were protocluster galaxies (Proposal 10404) and what eventually came out of it was the aptly named Spider Web Galaxy. The Spider Web Galaxy is actually a few arcminutes north of this little group, which reminds me of one of our famous stellar asterisms otherwise known as constellations. It could be a galactic version of Delphinus. The asterism is actually pointing almost due north (to the left).

A widefield, north up version is available.

Red: F775W ACS/WFC
Green: F606W ACS/WFC
Blue: F435W ACS/WFC

North is NOT up. It is 69.5° counter-clockwise from up.

Copyright information:
Hubble data is public domain, but I put a lot of work into combining it into beautiful color images. The minimal credit line should read: NASA / ESA / J. Schmidt

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.