From C. Palma, et al. "The Beginning of the End: Hubble Space Telescope Images of Seyfert’s Sextet", Astrophysical J. Vol 124, pp 2425-2439 (2002):
This image from the above article is from the second generation Digital Sky Survey (red plate) and represents 5′ on a side. It shows the designations for 5 galaxies, a-e, and the tidal tail. These objects are included as a Hickson Compact Group (HCG). The interest in these objects is directed toward understanding if dwarf galaxies form during tidal interactions among giant galaxies. Seyfert’s Sextet appears to lack young star clusters or tidal dwarf galaxies. These galaxies are most early type S0/E. One of the interesting aspects of Seyfert’s Sextet according to the article is that the tidal interactions have not led to new star or star-cluster formation. Analysis of the point sources suggest an age >1Gyr.
A natural color imaged from the Hubble Space Telescope is shown below and is oriented to match that of my image above. My object "d" is blue and there is a "hint" of a spiral in my object "e". I don’t have the resolution to see the dust lane in object "a". The wispy tail above "c" in my image was not described in the article.
The image below is also discussed in the article. It was taken with the 0.9 m telescope at Kitt Peak using the R-band. It shows 33 faint, background galaxies, mostly above the Seyfert Sextet toward the NW. The image was rotated to match the orientation in my image.
Below is a blowup of my image with the above background galaxies annotated. I don’t know what magnitude these are, but I was surprised that most show up in a 16" telescope with only about 5 hours of exposure time.
