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This stunning
group of galaxies lies near the hind quarters of Leo the lion,
riding high on March evenings near the zenith. This is the first
time I have been able to capture all three in one image with
decent resolution on all three galaxies. There are numerous background
galaxies in this image, as we are looking toward a part of the
sky with little interference from the Milky Ways dust.
On the left is
the peculiar edge on spiral NGC3628, a 10.3rd magnitude Sb type
with a yellow core, gorgeous central dust lane and expanded blue
arms.
Top is M65 a 10.3
magnitude SAB type spiral, some 10 arc minutes in size. You can
clearly see the dust in the arms on this 6 degree incline spiral.
Bottom is M66,
undoubtedly the most interesting object in the field. This bright
9.7th mag SAB spiral shows excellent internal details in the
blue arms with an outer spray of stars beyond the galaxies edges.
Dozens of faint
galaxies permeate this field. The faintest I could identify for
sure are 17.5 magnitude, the 15th magnitude ones being quite
obvious.
North is to the
left in this 1.5 degree wide image.
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