This object is a tiny visual grouping of galaxies in the constellation of Pegasus at a declination of +33 degrees. Its namesake, Stephan's Quintet, is due to its discovery by Édouard Stephan in 1877. The area of the central group is only about 4 minutes in diameter, but there is a lot going on in this small part of the sky.

Four of these galaxies (all except the bluish galaxy at lower left) form the first compact galaxy group ever discovered, located 280 million light years away. The bottom right galaxy of the group is NGC 7317, a small elliptical galaxy. Slightly above and to the left are 2 converging spiral galaxies (NGC 7318A and NGC 7318B), which have already begun to merge with each other. This collision has drawn out long star streams from each galaxy. Further up and to the left is another interacting spiral (NGC 7319), whose gravitational interaction with the other galaxies in this group is creating a long tidal stream stretching to the left. These four galaxies are called Hickson Compact Group 92 and they may all merge with each other in time.

The brightest galaxy in this image is the whitish-blue spiral galaxy NGC 7320. This galaxy is not located with the other 4 and is only aligned with it by our line of sight. This galaxy is less than 40 million light years away, almost an order of magnitude closer than the other 4.

A sixth galaxy, NGC 7320c, is seen towards the left side of the image. It is likely that this galaxy is interacting with the other 4.

Although faint, I find the star streams of this object to be fascinating and difficult to understand. Obviously a lot of interaction going on here.

Some people believe that these galaxies may be the most seen galaxies on earth. The four brightest galaxies are featured as "talking angels" in the opening sequence of the famous 1946 film, "It's a Wonderful Life". The galaxy image in the film is crude by today's standards, but keep in mind that the film is 75 years old. I am impressed that such a distant, relatively obscure object was featured in a headline movie way back then.