Stephen's Quintet is another very tough challenge to find and photograph.
The quintet is a prototype of a class of objects known as compact groups of galaxies and has been studied intensively for decades.
As its name implies this is a group of five galaxies (NGC7317, 7318A, 7318B, 7319 and 7320) and lies about 270 million light-years away in the constellation of Pegasus (North-west of the Great Square of Pegasus).
The galaxy group discovered by the French astronomer Edouard Stephan in 1877, using the Foucault 80-cm reflector at the Marseilles Observatory -- and it was the first such grouping to be found. Today we know of hundreds of similar groupings, but few are as spectacular as Stephan's Quintet.
Observation notes:
2006 September 16, 19 hours 37 minutes local time.
Sky -- excellent. 4 out of 5. Dark sky.
5 minute exposure on 3 megapixel CCD.
14 inch Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope with 3910mm focal length.
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