Leo Triplet

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

I took this one over the last new moon period. First image for months and months and months and .....


The link is here https://www.astrobin.com/n2ec75/

Mount: AP 900
Camera: QSI wsg 540
Telescope: Televue 101is
Software: PixInsight

The Leo Triplet (also known as the M66 Group) is a small galaxy group in Leo about 35 million light years away. This group consists of the spiral galaxies M65, M66 and NGC 3628. The three galaxies in the M66 Group have all been affected by gravitational interactions with each other. This is evident in the deformed, drawn out spiral arms of M66 that are experiencing a high rate of star forming activity and in the warped, inflated disk of NGC 3628. With a prominent tidal tail consisting mainly of young blue stars, NGC 3628 seems to be the most affected of the three, while M65 appears to have suffered the least damage from the interaction. The tidal tail of NGC 3628 spans over 300,000 light years and, although is is very faint, it is well shown in this image.

[atalas]

Well done Geoff....tidal tale showing up nicely too

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

Thanks Louie

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

That's great Geoff. There is faint detail here that I have not noticed previously in images of this field.

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

Thanks Rodney. Getting the tidal stream to show without blowing out the galaxies was a challenge. I tried GHS for the first time—still need more practice with it.