NGC3718

My first attempt at NGC3718 which lies at a distance of about 49 million light years from Earth. 

It's a very unusually looking galaxy, featuring a twisted dust lane in the central region.  To the right you can also see the companion galaxy NGC3729 which, occurring to radio measurements, appears to be interacting with its larger partner.  At the top of the image, Hickson 56 can be seen, a grouping of five small galaxies that are estimated to be about 390 million light years away. 

The LRGB image represents just under 16 hours and was taken with my Esprit 150.