This seldom imaged object lies quite far away at 220 million ly, and it took a particularly long (14 hour) image to bring out some details in it. Its often referred to as the “Atoms for Peace” galaxy. NGC7252 is the result of 2 galaxies that collided about a billion years ago.

Note a number of round objects forming a ring around the interior. I’m advised that they are star forming complexes, each a few hundred ly across. Apparently, regularly spaced complexes commonly form in rings when there are gravitational instabilities. Since that requires a certain amount of mass for a collapse, you have to go some distance away before another region has enough mass to also collapse.

PlaneWave 12.5″ Astrograph with an ST11000 camera, Astrodon filters, and ASA gearless DDM-85 mount. F/8 LRGB (73/8min L, 14/8min each 2×2 RGB).