Combination of 10, 3 minute exposures unfiltered.
SBIG STL-1001E CCD. 20" f/6.8 Dall-Kirkham cassegrain telescope at prime focus.
PGC 54859, more commonly known as Hoag's Object, is one of the strangest objects in the sky. When first discovered it was believed to be a planetary nebula, and from its appearance in the above image, it is not difficult to understand why. However, subsiquent observations with larger telescopes soon proved it to be a strange-looking galaxy. Now known as "ring galaxies", the peculiar structure of this class of galaxies is thought to have resulted from galaxy collisions.