2 interacting galaxies at 1/2 billion lys away – the furthest I have imaged any galaxy. This 10.5 hour exposure reveals a surprising amount of detail given the distance to the objects. Two reasons for this are the very large sizes of the spirals, and their open face views toward us. NGC7733, the smaller one, is 161,000
lys across and its partner NGC7734 is 283,000 lys across – almost 3 times the size of the Milky Way.

They lie well down toward the south pole in Tucana at 502 million ly away. Note the faint bridge connecting them.The Hubble image of these shows a 3rd, far smaller galaxy, in the top arm of NGC7733, which is recorded here as just a light yellow indentation on the arm.

PlaneWave 12.5″ Astrograph with ZWO ASI6200 camera, Astrodo;n filters, and ASA gearless DDM-85 mount. F/8 LRGB (76/4minL, 26/4min RGB each, all 2×2 bin).