Galaxies have been very challenging for me to process, but I am so excited about the image that I was able to acquire in late April 2023, and successfully process into an image that I am happy with.  My target for this image was the Hamburger Galaxy (NGC3628), but I got so much more in this image that I ever could imagine.  Little did I know when I targeted the Hamburger Galaxy, that I would also be capturing the Leo Triplet.  Oh, but there is more – In addition to the three main galaxies, this image also captures at least 12 other galaxies that are just slightly visible.  Wow, just blown away at what I captured in my backyard and the vast number of galaxies in our universe, and the absolute potential for life out there among the stars.The Leo Triplet – Galaxy group in the constellation Leo

• NGC3628 – Hamburger Galaxy is a spiral galaxy (Bb) ~ 35 million light years from Earth – there is debate on whether it is a Barred Spiral galaxy or Unbarred.  This galaxy is also referred to as Sarah’s Galaxy, referring to poet Sarah Williams, and her poem “The Old Astronomer”
• Barred spiral Galaxies have a central bar-shaped structure composed of stars (roughly 2/3rds of spiral galaxies have bars) – Our Milky Way Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy
• To compare with below, M66 has a B magnitude of 10.42


• NGC3627/M66 – Intermediate spiral galaxy (SAb), although it has a high central mass likely due to interactions with NGC3628.  This galaxy has a diameter of ~95,000 light years
• To compare with below, M66 has a B magnitude of 9.65


• NGC3623/M65 – Intermediate spiral galaxy (SAa) thought to have a low level of star formation, possibly due to the interactions with the two other galaxies in the Triplet
• An Intermediate spiral galaxy is in between a Barred and Unbarred spiral galaxy (ie, not sure if it has a central bar), possibly due to the view angle
• To compare with below, M66 has a B magnitude of 9.6

Other galaxies in the image (starting in the lower left hand and working clockwise)

1. IC2704: Spiral Galaxy (SAab) – B Magnitude 15.5
2. IC2708: Elliptical Galaxy (E3) – B Magnitude 15.1 (brightest of the distant galaxies)
3. IC2762: Spiral Galaxy (SAd) – B magnitude 15.5
4. IC2745: Barred Spiral Galaxy (Bb) – B magnitude 15.3
5. IC2782: Spiral Galaxy (SAd) – B magnitude 15.2
6. IC2787: Spiral Galaxy (SAc) – B magnitude 15.5
7. IC2752: Elliptical Galaxy (E3) – B magnitude 16.73
8. IC2754: Spiral Galaxy (SAc) – B magnitude 16.97
9. IC2761: Spiral Galaxy (SAab) – B magnitude 16.79
10. IC2765: Elliptical Galaxy (E3) – B magnitude 17.17
11. IC2769: Spiral Galaxy (SAb) – B magnitude 15.6
12. IC2694: Barred Spiral Galaxy (Bbc) – B magnitude 15.3

B Magnitude refers to how bright a star/object is in blue colors (measured at 4000 Angstroms).  For Reference, our Sun’s B Magnitude is 5.48.  The lower the number, the brighter the object will be (in the blue spectrum).  This information comes from “The Sky Live” (https://theskylive.com) and I used it to show relative brightness for the objects.The galaxy designations come from the Hubble-DE Vaucouleurs Diagram for Galaxy Morphological classification (IC2704 is a designation of SAab).These pictures were shot with the IDAZ Dual Narrowband filter which is great for heavy light pollution areas (like mine), moonlight, and allows light transmission in two main frequency regions:

1. Hydrogen Alpha (Ha) (red) at 656.3 nm with a bandwidth of 15nm
2. Oxygen III (Oiii) (blue) at 500.7 nm with a bandwidth of 35nm

This image was processed in One shot color (OSC) with a pseudo luminance layer added.  My galaxy workflow was modelled off of Cosgrove Cosmo’s processing of the Spindle Galaxy (https://cosgrovescosmos.com/projects/m102).  This image was taken over four nights (4/24/2023 – 4/27/2023) with a total of 84 good frames @ 300 seconds, totalling 7 hours of light integration.  I had 2 more nights, but the images were impacted by clouds.My setup:

• Mount: EQ6R-Pro
• Telescope: Williams Optics 81 mm Zenithstar doublet
• ZWO-ASI224MC color camera for guiding with the Zenithstar guide
• Hotech Corporation 2” Field Flattener
• ZWO ASI2600MC Pro; Camera cooled to -10 deg C, with ZWO Duo-Band Narrowband Light Pollution Reduction Filter
• Bortle-9 – South Los Angeles shot from my backyard
• Image Processing: Pixinsight – @Cosgrove’sCosmos (Thank you for your recent feedback in my image processing), @ViewintoSpace, @EnteringintoSpace, @Lukomatico – Lots of great on-line teachers/examples.
• Incorporated Russell Croman’s amazing products (Blur, Noise, and Star Xterminators)