27/08/2026
First had a go at this one 7 years ago. Tried again various times inbetween, but never managed to grab enough to be happy with doing His creation justice. After a hard summer of trying, finally there.
25hrs 20mins total exposure time, using a 700mm refractor telescope, at its native focal length, and a dedicated astronomy camera with no filters, this is Stephan's Quintet (on the left) and the Deer Lick Group, both galaxy clusters, in the constellation Pegasus.
The 4 main ones in Stephan's Quintet are approximately 290 million light years away, and are actively interacting and colliding, whilst the brightest foreground one is only about 40 million light years away, and only appears to be part of the group because it lays along the same line of sight.
The Deer Lick Group is similar in that the closest is about 40 million light years away, with the background ones sitting at around 300 to 350 million light years distance.
