The Leo Triplet - M65, M66 and NGC3628

Leo Triplet
The Leo Triplet Galaxies M65, M66 and NGC3628 - 31 million light years distant in the constellation Leo (naturally)
Messier 65 (NGC3623) at top right, is a spiral galaxy 8.7x2.2 arcminutes in size and has a visual magnitude of 9.3
Messier 66 (NGC3627) at top left, is a spiral galaxy 8.2x3.9 arcminutes in size and has a visual magnitude of 8.9
NGC3628, at bottom, is an edge-on sprial galaxy 14x4.0 arcminutes in size and has a visual magnitude of 9.5

There are MANY tiny background galaxies to see too.

Click on the image above to see it twice as large. Below is a close-up of M65:

Imaging Details:
Telescope: Astro-Physics AP155EDF w 4" FF
Camera: Apogee Instruments U16M w 7-position filter wheel and Astrodon Gen II LRGB Filters
Mount: Paramount ME from Software Bisque

LRGB:
Luminance is 8 x 10 min
RGB are 3 x 10 min per channel
Acquisition in CCDSoft5
Dark and Flat Calibration, alignment and combines in Maxim
Colour combine, Levels, select sharpening all in Photoshop CS4
Luminance layered in at 50% then 30% per Rob Gendler
Ambient temp about 0C and CCD temp -35C

Flesherton, Ontario, Canada
April 23, 2011

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