Pavo, NGC 6769, 6770 and 6771.
The triplet is located around 190 million light years from here and is strongly interacting which is triggering new star formation.
The three galaxies are barred spiral galaxies: NGC 6769 has tightly wound spiral arms, while NGC 6770 has two major spiral arms, one of which is rather straight and points towards the outer disk of NGC 6769. NGC 6770 is peculiar in that it presents two comparatively straight dark lanes and a fainter arc that curves towards the third galaxy, NGC 6771.
Stars and gas have been stripped off NGC 6769 and NGC 6770, starting to form a common envelope around them, in the shape of a Devil’s Mask. There the beginning of a faint bridge between NGC 6769 and NGC 6771.
Imaged in LRGB on our PlaneWave CDK 1000 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile
Integration Time: 24 hours
Image Processing: Mike Selby