A couple of Galaxies in Leo

[atalas]

Hi Gang !

This pair of Galaxies in Leo(M66/65) is a must do for Astrophotographers!

With there dusty lanes amongst the intricate spiral structure, to there subtle colours, and lying at a distance of 31 million LY and at about mag 10,there always a challenge.

It's interesting to note that the Leo trio was over looked by Messier who was busy observing a comet in 1773 which passed directly through the field on November the 2nd(must of been one hell of a comet!) consequently they were descovered by Mechain in March 1780.

I shot this through the ZS 110 with the SXV-H9C and guided on an AP600E mount out at Magellen Observatory 200km south of Sydney a couple of months back.

Exposures were 12 x 10 minutes and AA3 was used to capture,align&combine and CS2 for all post processing.

I hope you enjoy:)

[leon]

Now that's a great image Louie, very sharp indeed nice work.

Leon

[ballaratdragons]

Nice image Louie,

heaps better than my version from a few weeks ago :thumbsup:

[nightsky]

G'Day,
WOW thats a great shot M8,clear as a bell and very sharp :thumbsup: love the colour as well,and like you say it must have been a Bright comet to miss them
Cheers
Arthur

[Ric]

A lovely image Louie, You have captured some excellent detail and colour.
The structure within the galaxies is superb.
I will definitely have to image these as well.

Cheers

[ballaratdragons]

Here ya go Louie, I'll swap you my Leo pair for your Leo pair.

Better still, I'll swap you cameras :lol:

[skeltz]

Nice image louie and good so see the detail in the galaxies,must be pretty happy with them ah!
I will have to take some shots of them with my setup,you have inspired me....now if those darn clouds could just go away...........

[Tamtarn]

Great image Louie.Sharp with good detail and really like the colours :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

very nice Sir Atlas! very nice. Your getting some nice framed images.

[gbeal]

Great shot Louie. You didn't think to mosaic the NGC that forms the third sibling? I ended up with a few of the three this year, at last. Nice just the same, Gary

[iceman]

Excellent work! I love the detail in the top one! Well done Louie!

[FOOTPRINT]

Hi Louie,
Great detail and colour, an interesting picture all round, keep em coming.

cheers.......Jim

[duncan]

OOOHHH! I just love looking at these sorts of piccies. Well done Louie!:D

[Octane]

Louie,

Those are gorgeous. I can't believe how much detail you've managed to bring out in the dusty arms. That's incredible!

Awesome.

Regards,
Humayun

[rogerg]

:thumbsup:

:clap:

[davidpretorius]

they are beautiful louie

[Dr Nick]

Amazingly sharp! ;)

[atalas]

Leon,Ken,Arthur,Ric,Rob,Barb&Dave,Houghy,Gary,Mike,Jim,Duncan,H, Roger,David and Nick,thanks for the feedback guy's!

Gary,I can just fit the trio on my chip but havent had the chance to shoot them yet but ! I'll have a bigger chip camera soon anyway so I'll wait till then.

Ken,you really got great detail in that shot out of a web cam !well done,and as for my camera ?would you like my shirt with that too ? hahaha!

Rob,happy?me? never ! the seeing was crap ! the clouds rolled in and they are a bit low in the sky for my liking ! or maybe I'm just an old grump ! hahaha!