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 This amazing
            object belongs to one of the rarest galaxy classes in the entire
            sky, Ring Galaxies. Exceedingly dim at 15.0 magnitude, it is
            very small a 1 arcminute in size and has been the studied with
            the great Hubble Space Telescope in some detail. First thought
            to be a planetary nebula, Art Hoag in the 50's later determined
            by its spectrum that it was a very distant distorted galaxy created
            by the passage of another galaxy through the core of a probably
            normal spiral. You can still see today the yellowish inner core,
            and outer bluish remains of the arms.

            
If you look
            at the larger images, you can just make out the highly fragmented
            nature of the blue ring, as in my image here appearing as gaps
            on the right side. I strongly recommend you spend the time with
            the largest image and also see the large number of background
            galaxies in this image!

            
In this crop
            of the central region of the frame, you can see a pair of dim
            16th magnitude spirals off to the left.

Instrument:  12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian
Platform:  Astrophysics 1200 QMD
CCD Camera:  SBIG 10XME NABG with Enhanced Cooling
Guider: SBIG ST4
Exposure:  LRGB = 60:20:20:20 (RGB Binned 2x2)
RGB Combine Ratio:  1: 1.05: 1.11
Filters:  AstroDon RGB Tricolor
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing FWHM = 7 arcsec (Maxim DL - 10min subframe), Transparency 8/10
Outside Temperature:  5 C
CCD Temperature:  -20 C
Processing Tools:  Maxim DL,  Photoshop, PixInsight, RW Debloomer.
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