M66 (Frank Colosimo)

M66

Messier 66 (M66, NGC 3627) is a magnitude 8.9 Sb galaxy in the constellation of Leo, and is part of the Leo Triplett with MGC 3628 and M65. The trio is located at a distance of about 35 million light years.

From SEDS: Discovered 1780 by Charles Messier.

The spiral arms of M66 are deformed, probably because of the encounters with its neighbors. They seem to be distorted and displaced above the plane of the galaxy. Note how one of the spiral arms seems to pass over the left side of the central bulge. Much dust is visible here, as well as a few pink nebulae, signs of star formation, near the end of one of the arms.

Date: Feb 29 and Mar 7 2008

Location: New Ringgold PA

Optics: Meade LX200R 12 inch at f/10

Mount: Paramount ME

Camera: SBIG ST-8XME / CFW-8

Guiding: ST-8XME integral guiding chip controlled by Maxim CCD

Exposure: LRGB: Luminance: 13x6 minutes unbinned; RGB: 8 each binned 2x2 - 5 min for R,G, and 6 min for B for a total of 3.4 hrs.

Processing: Image acquisition using CCD Autopilot. Initial processing was done using Maxim DL with subsequent processing with Photoshop.

Final Version:

Date: Mar/Apr 2017

Location: New Ringgold PA

Optics: Hyperion 12.5 inch f/9 2532mm focal length

Mount: Paramount ME

Camera: Sbig STL-11000

Guiding: integral guiding chip

Exposure: LRGB L:38x20 min R:12x10 min, G:10x10 min, B:12x10 min Total 18.3 hrs

Processing: Image acquisition using CCD Autopilot. Initial processing was done using Maxim DL with subsequent processing with Photoshop.

Original
Final
C

C

Description: This is new data with new equipment, where I tried to improve my results from 2008.

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Status	Basic failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	2376130
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
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