Located about 70 million light-years from us in the direction of the constellation Leo, the quadruplet of Leo called Hicksson 44 is not very often visited by amateur astrophotographers! And yet it is a group of galaxies as spectacular as the famous trio of the lion located in the same constellation.
This group of galaxies consists of one elliptical galaxy (NGC 3193), two barred spiral galaxies (NGC 3185 and NGC 3187) and a spiral galaxy (NGC3189) which is the dominant galaxy of the group.
The four galaxies of magnitude between 11 and 12 are in gravitational interaction, the effects of which are particularly evident on NGC 3187 where the tidal tails give them this very particular “S” shape.
It should also be noted that NGC 3190 is also affected by the forces of gravity of its neighbors which inevitably twist its galactic disk.