NGC 6822 is a barred irregular galaxy that is part of the Local Group of galaxies. Located only 1.5M light-years away, it is somewhat similar to the Small Magellanic Cloud and exhibits intense star formation. The red circular regions in the image are large bubbles of ionized hydrogen that have been "lit up" by the young, bright blue stars in the galaxy.
Image was taken with a 12.5" PlaneWave CDK telescope and a QSI-640ws camera at f/5.2 using LRGB filters. The data were collected on 7/8, 8/2, and 8/3/2013 from a dark sky site near Anza, CA for a total integration time of 10.2 hours.
-- Bruce Waddington