This pair of galaxies resides in the constellation Leo that rides high in the southern sky, leading Virgo toward the west. The galaxy to the left is M65 while M66 is on the right. They are similar in size, about 90,000 light years across, though M65 is inclined at about 74 degrees to our line of sight making it look much more elongated. While these do make a stunning pair, there is actually a third I wasn't able to get in a single shot that together comprise the "Leo Triplet".
Photo Details
May 6-7, 2015
Orion 8" Astrograph on VX Mount
SBIG STF-8300C Camera
Baader MPC Mark III Multi-Purpose Coma Corrector
Skyglow filter
22 sub-frames at 3 minutes/frame
Total Exposure Time = 1 hour 6 minutes
Image Acquisition in CCDOps
Image Stacking in Deep Sky Tracker
Image Processing in PhotoShop
Spring is the time for galaxies in the southern part of the sky and though we've had tremendous cloud cover, we finally had a nice stretch of clear weather. I was able to get out a few nights last week with a new camera (see notes below) and had a lot of fun shooting images at -15C with an entirely different setup. So, this is essentially "first light" for the new setup. I think M100 was a beautiful target, graced by a number of additional nearby galaxies. While appearing somewhat small in this image, consider that it is 107,000 light years across and contains 200,000 million solar masses. This is comparable to our own Milky Way galaxy. It's irregular spiral shape has been attributed to gravitational interactions with the nearby galaxies.
Photo Details
May 6-7, 2015
Orion 8" Astrograph on VX Mount
SBIG STF-8300C Camera
Baader MPC Mark III Multi-Purpose Coma Corrector
Skyglow filter
38 sub-frames at 3 minutes/frame
Total Exposure Time = 1 hour 54 minutes
Image Acquisition in CCDOps
Image Stacking in Deep Sky Tracker
Image Processing in PhotoShop
