Quote:
Originally Posted by mental4astro
 Orestis!
Leo Trio of Galaxies- M65, M66 & NGC 3628. Reaching meridian near midnight (its highest position for the evening), it is at its best now being bang in the middle of the Dark of the Night (the darkest portion of the evening is the four hours between 10pm and 2am standard time). These three will sit comfortably in a low power wide field eyepiece.
All three are spiral galaxies, M65 just about flush face on, M66 close to 45 deg tilt, and 3628 nearly edge on somewhat resembling a smaller Sombrero galaxy, with a dark central lane obvious in a 12" scope. M66 has arms that are among the easiest seen of all galaxies. Two can be seen faintly in a 10" scope, and very easily seen in a 16".
This trio is easy to locate, being very close to the star Theta in Leo. |
Hi all,
There is another nice trio of galaxies in Leo worth taking a look at whilst you are in this vicinity; M105, NGC 3384 and NGC 3389. They fit easily into the FOV of a medium power eyepiece. The three galaxies cover less than a 1/4 of a degree. M105 and NGC 3384 are fairly bright giant elliptical galaxies and NGC 3389 is a fainter lenticular galaxy. M105 and NGC 3384 are both bright galaxies and visible in small telescopes. NGC 3389 is fainter but easily visible in a 10" telescope under good skies. I have seen NGC 3389 in my 10" scope under "urban" skies and in my old 8" from darker skies.
Cheers,
John B