Bruce Murray Space Image Library

The Leo Triplet - M65, M66 & NGC3628

The Leo Triplet - M65, M66 & NGC3628
The Leo Triplet - M65, M66 & NGC3628 The Leo Triplet, a small group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. Oliver Czernetz, Gerhard Molinaro; Digitized Sky Survey.

Really happy about this one as it is the first cooperation with an old friend of mine, Gerhard Molinaro. In 2013 Gerhard managed to capture 5 hours' excellent RGB data of M65 & M66, imaged from his Home Observatory in Wagna/Austria. My part was the image processing, and I decided to extend the whole scene to show the complete Leo Triplet, using additional Data from the POSS-II Sky Survey.

Optics: Skywatcher 200/800 f/4 Newton Camera: Meade DSI3 Mount: Losmandy G11 Guiding: Lacerta MGEN Location: Wagna, Austria, Europe Additional Data: POSS-II Sky Survey (The Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-II) was made by the California Institute of Technology with funds from the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Sloan Foundation, the Samuel Oschin Foundation, and the Eastman Kodak Corporation.) Data courtesy: Gerhard Molinaro; Digitized Sky Survey. Image Assembly and Processing: Oliver Czernetz Software: Fits Liberator, Deep Sky Stacker, RegiStar, Photoshop CS5