NGC 6771, 6770 & 6769

 GALAXIES INTERACTION IN PAVO (THE PEACOCK)

(Image centred at: ra 18h:18m / dec -60º 30')

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ANNOTATED IMAGE 100% RESOLUTION

AUGUST 2026, Observatorio Cielos Albertnos, Buenos Aires, Argentina

DATA

TYPE: Galaxy Group

APPARENT DIAMETER: 6 arc minutes for the Galaxy Trio Group

APPARENT MAGNITUDE (V): 12.6 12,0 & 11.6 respectivelly

DISTANCE: 190 Million light years

IMAGE INFORMATION

INSTRUMENT: Orion Optics UK 6" Newtonian with Ultra Grade Optics working at f 4.5

CAMERA: QHY 183 Mono Camera

MOUNT: SKY WATCHER NEQ6 Guided off axis with QHY 5II Mono Camera 

FILTERS: Antlia LRGB Set 

SKY CONDITIONS: Bortle 3 to 4 skies

OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND IMAGE SESSION

Some 190 million light-years away, far beyond the bright stars and nebulae of the Milky Way, these three galaxies are drawn together by gravity in a mesmerizing cosmic dance. Clearly distorted by galactic-scale gravitational interactions, large spiral galaxies NGC 6769 and NGC 6770 are seen face-on, with luminous galactic disks scarred by obscuring interstellar dust lanes. Their young blue star clusters along drawn out spiral arms are spawned in star forming regions that resulted from collisions of massive molecular clouds. Below, spiral NGC 6771 presents a more edge-on perspective, its boxy central bulge due to tidal star streams. Of course, in the distant future a merger of the three galaxies is inevitable. This galaxy trio spans over 300 light years, within the boundaries of the far southern constellation Pavo.(*)

The image covers a large are and small distant galaxies are shown in below 100% rendition.

(*) Text adapted from NASA

NGC 6771, 6770 & 6769 Annotated Image 100% Resolution

 GALAXIES INTERACTION IN PAVO (THE PEACOCK)

Image Plate Solver script version 5.6.2

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Referentiation matrix (world[ra,dec] = matrix * image[x,y]):

+1.94409546e-04 +6.27520825e-05 -6.54498095e-01

-6.27063468e-05 +1.94470091e-04 -1.84382708e-01

WCS transformation ....... Linear

Projection ............... Gnomonic

Projection origin ........ [2772.039449 1841.965380] px -> [RA: 19 18 40.885 Dec: -60 30 34.71]

Resolution ............... 0.736 arcsec/px

Rotation ................. -162.130 deg

Reference system ......... ICRS

Observation start time ... 2026-06-15 08:04:25 UTC

Observation end time ..... 2026-06-15 08:07:24 UTC

Geodetic coordinates ..... 58 31 05 W 34 29 19 S 50 m

Focal distance ........... 673.05 mm

Pixel size ............... 2.40 um

Field of view ............ 1d 7' 57.7" x 45' 9.6"

Image center ............. RA: 19 18 40.882 Dec: -60 30 34.67

Image bounds:

top-left .............. RA: 19 13 20.029 Dec: -60 41 14.51

top-right ............. RA: 19 22 10.689 Dec: -61 02 19.78

bottom-left ........... RA: 19 15 17.852 Dec: -59 58 29.66

bottom-right .......... RA: 19 23 58.105 Dec: -60 19 07.25