These two Galaxies,NGC5426 and 5427,seem to collide in the future.But this not yet clear;only strong interacting is going on in the outer parts of both.At a real distance of about 90 million light-years they are shinig at a magnitude of 12,5mag and a diameter of only 1.5x3.0 arc minutes (NGC5426).

Probably in about 5 million years our own milky-wy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy M31 in a similar collision.

NGC5426-7 were discovered by William Herschel in 1785

position (epoch 2000):

RA.: 14h 03m 24,8s
Decl.: -06° 04′ 09″

image data:

LRGB image with L = 29x1200s, RGB = 10x1200s each,a total of 19.7 hours
80cm f/7 AstroOptik Keller corrected cassegrain FLI Proline 16803 Astrodon LRGB Gen-II filters

Prompt 7 CTIO/UNC Chile,remote controlled

image processing: Bernd Flach-Wilken

here you see the two interactiung galaxies in a 85% CCD field size.Click here to get full resolution

this is a more detailed look at NGC5426-7:

Here you find a picture of these two interacting Galaxies taken by the 3,6m-ESO-reflector from LaSilla/Chile.