Messier 65, 66, and NGC 3628: The Leo Triplet
Date: March 7, 2021
Cosgrove’s Cosmos Catalog ➤#0065
The Leo Triplet - also known as the M66 Group. (click image for full resolution via Astrobin.com)
Awarded Flickr “Explore” Status Mar 11, 2021
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About the Target
The Leo Triplet, also known as the M66 group, is a small group of galaxies located about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. The three prominent galaxies involved are M65 (bottom left), M66 (top left), and NGC 3628 (right).
M65
M65 was discovered by Charles Messier in 1780. It is an intermediate spiral along with some distortion which suggests some gravitational interactions with its neighbors at some point in the past.
M66
M66 is classified as a SABb Spiral galaxy, which means that it has weak bar features and loosely wound arms. It is about 31 million light-years away and measures about 96 thousand light-years across.
NGC 3628
NGC 3628 is also known as The Hamburger Galaxy or Sarah's Galaxy. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. It sports a prominent dust lane and shows signs of distortion from interactions with its neighbors.
The Annotated Image
An annotated version of Leo Triplet - created with Pixinsight ImageSolve and AnnotateImage scripts.
The Location in the Sky
Credit FreeStarChart.com: Chart of the constellation Leo with the Leo Triplet location indicated by the yellow arrow.
About the Project
This was my first image of the year (2021). Rochester finally gave us a nice clear night on March 7th and I braved the cold capture to 58x180 second subs for a total integration that was just shy of 3 hours.
It was a super cold night - hoar frost built up on most surfaces but the gear still did its job. I had a pair of heated gloved that my wife gave me for Christmas one year. These are thin and last about 4-5 hours on lithium batteries connected to each glove - and they really worked to save my hands! They are thin enough to do fine detail work and yet they kept my fingers warm!
New Commentary (as I add this image to the website)
Adding a side note. Rochester weather is abysmal for astrophotographers. Around November the clouds come in and don’t ever seem to leave until late spring. This year we had our first good clear night with no moon on the night of March 7th. This was also my birthday! So that evening, I broke my almost three-month-long fast from astrophotography, to capture a couple of nice images. It was the best birthday gift I could have gotten!
More Information
Wikipedia Entry: Leo Triplet M65 M66 NGC 3628
Capture Details
Lights Frames
Taken the nights of 3/7/2021
58 x 180 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C
Total integration of 2.9 hours
Cal Frames
50 Bias exposures
25 Dark exposures
50 Flat Darks
25 Flats
Capture Hardware
Scope: William Optics 132mm FLT F/7 APO
Guide Scope: Sharpstar 61DPHII
Guide Scope Focus Motor: ZWO EAF
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290Mini
Main Scope Focus Motor: Pegasus Astro Focus Cube 2
Field Rotator: Pegasus Astro Falcon
Mount: Ioptron CEM60
Polar Alignment: Ioptron Ipolar integrated alignment cameras
Software
Capture Software: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller
Image Processing: Pixinsight, Photoshop - assisted by Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second-guessing, editor regret and much swearing…..
For Christmas of 2020, my wife gave me a neat little wide field scope - the Sharpstar 61EDPHII! This little scope came with a Reducer/Flattener and would make a great wide field Astrograph. So I thought about how to use it.