this is a group of interacting galaxies, NGC 7769, NGC 7770, NGC 7771 and NGC 7771A. They are about 170 millions light years away. NGC 7769 is the face on spiral to the upper right. The other big galaxy is NGC 7771. It shows more tidal distortions than NGC 7769. These are likely caused by NGC 7770 just below it. It is a double nucleus S0 galaxy. It could be the result of the merger of two such galaxies whose cores haven't yet merged. I found one paper in which radio HI emissions were used to try and determine this but there was too much noise in the data and they couldn't come to a conclusion. Note how the tidal arm of 7770 that goes down, ends very suddenly. The bright arm at the top left of NGC 7771 also ends abruptly. Very odd. The blue galaxy between NGC 7769 and 7771 is NGC 7771A. It appears that the interaction has triggered a lot of star formation in it. There are a few dwarf members of this group but they are only easily seen when I leave the data very noisy so I won't try and point them out. Toward the top is the more distant Seyfert galaxy MCG+03-60-031 which is 550 million light years away. Oddly the rather bright and large galaxy below it and above the NGC 7769-71 group is not in either the SIMBAD or NED database. I've determined it is PGC 214992 but that's all I know about it. The PGC catalog has been replaced with LEDA using the same numbers yet it isn't in the LEDA database that I can find. NGC 7771A is LEDA 214993 but there is no LEDA 214992. It apparently isn't a member of the group. A supernova was seen in NGC 7771 in 2003. Not unusual for tidally interacting galaxies. The interaction triggers star formation which tends to favor massive, short lived stars. Though this galaxy looks old by its reddish color.

NGC 7769 and NGC 7771 were found by William Herschel on September 18, 1784. Neither are in a Herschel 400 program. NGC 7770 was discovered by Bindon Stoney on November 5, 1850.

The vertical reddish galaxy trying to hide behind a bright star to the lower left is 2MASX J23515674+2001568 ID. I know nothing else about it. The galaxy further left and up by a bright double star is 2MASX J23522016+2005528 ID. Again that's all I have on it. I have even less on the obvious galaxy at the right edge of the image near the center. It appears to be a barred spiral but I couldn't find it in any database I have nor on any online database.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME