Messier 58 and the Siamese Galaxies

My original intent with this image was to focus on Messier 58 (barred face on galaxy on right).  This 300,000 solar mass galaxy is beautiful all by itself, but the Siamese Twin (or Butterfly) galaxies in the upper left steal the show.  The twin galaxies are actively colliding and merging together with active star formation where they overlap.  Imagine the newly born star systems and worlds forming at this very moment.  The light captured in this picture is nearly 60 million years old.  What will it look like 60 million years from now when the light currently leaving the twins finally arrives to Earth?  

Photo Details

May 13, 2016

Orion 8" Astrograph on VX Mount

SBIG STF-8300C Camera

Baader MPC Mark III Multi-Purpose Coma Corrector

Skyglow filter

35 subframes at 3 minutes/frame

Total Exposure Time = 1 hours 45 minutes
Image Acquisition in CCDOps
Image Stacking in Deep Sky Tracker
Image Processing in PhotoShop