Three bright galaxies in the constellation Leo. Two from Messier's famous catalog of deep sky objects, M65 and M66. These are the two on the left with M66 being on the top. The other galaxy is listed in the New General Catalog, NGC, as number 3628. They are part of a large group of galaxies all of which are from 20 to 30 million light years from earth. There are several other small galaxies in this photo as well.

This photo is made up of 17 8 minute subexposures, for a total of 2 hours and 16 minutes. Taken through my new Willaim Optics FLT110 Lite telescope. The night was a windy and very cold, with temps. dropping to 16 degrees F, by 5am. This is the first clear moonless night in a month, so I went out inspite of the cold. Seeing was marginal, grey on the Clear Clock scale.


Photo Details:

Date: March 1, 2009 5am
Camera: Canon XT modified by Hap Griffin
Telescope: William Optics FLT 110mm
Filter: IDAS LPS
Exposures: 17 by 8 minutes
Combined and dark subtracted in Deep Sky Stacker
Post Processed in PixInsight LE and PhotoShop CS3