Leo Triplet Galaxies
 

Three spiral galaxies shine high in the spring sky in the constellation Leo. These galaxies are about 35 million light years away.

M65 is in the upper-right, with M66 below it. NGC3628 is on the left. North is toward the upper-left corner.


M65 & M66

Equipment
 TMB-130SS APO refractor at f/7 on an Astro-Physics 1200 equatorial mount
SBIG ST-8XM camera
SBIG CFW-10 filter wheel with Astrodon filters
Guiding: 60mm f/5 refractor and ST-402 camera
Imaging and autoguiding with MaxIm DL 4.62
Exposure
Luminance   2.25 hours (27 x 5 min), unbinned
Red   1.75 hours (21 x 5 min.), binned 2x2
Green   2.17 hours (26 x 5 min.), binned 2x2
Blue   2.33 hours (28 x 5 min.), binned 2x2
Processing Image calibration, registration, sigma-reject, mean-combine in CCDStack. (Some exposures were made at -25°C and some at -23°C. Corresponding dark frames were subtracted for each temperature.)
Levels, curves, highpass filter in Photoshop CS2.
Date and Location 18-21 March, 2010    Montpelier, VA    N 37° 49' 12", W 77° 42' 06"