Leo Triplet M65, M66 and NGC 3628 - Then and Now (Tom S.)

Leo Triplet M65, M66 and NGC 3628 - Then and Now

I first imaged the "Triplet" back in 2016, one of my very first astrophotos. If I remember correctly, I used my Canon 70D with a nose piece adapter and stuck it into my Meade 8" LX200GPS, which had sat in a box for probably 10 plus years up until that point. I was so excited to get the "fuzzies" with even a little color/detail. I had given up with my Meade DSI all those years earlier with nothing to show off except frustration and space taken up in the closet. This among some others back then, M31 and M42, got me back on the horse and down the long and twisted astrophotography road.

While my first images back into the hobby were taken at my home in a nice dark Bortle 2 site, not long after, I had moved to the bright city skies to live with my future wife. On the rare nights the skies were clear, Narrowband imaging was the norm. I tried here and there on Broadband targets, but I found with limited clear nights the NB targets were a better fit. I could do more with less. Especially as I consider myself an "average" processor.

Now that I have a system set up at a dark site, and galaxy season is upon us, it felt natural to give the Leo Triplet another go. 8 years later. I have posted the new image as the Final revision and the one from 2016 as another. I tried to bring out more of the tidal tail on NGC3628, but it just needs more data and perhaps a more skilled processor. That being said, I like how this came out. And feels pretty good to look back and see how time and effort start to pay off. Wonder if I'd get the same feeling watching some 1980's home videos??? LOL

Original
B
Final
C

B

Description: One of my first astro-photos, Leo Triplet in 2016. Taken with unmodified Canon EOS70D and Meade 8" LX200GPS

Uploaded: ...

C

Description: Aligned the histogram colors a little better and a touch more noise reduction.

Uploaded: ...

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9476112
PixInsight job	01KFUXYGFFU6EEV2WDDA0KG95NX0Y2TF
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	11h19m49s.350
RA (top/left)	11h21m58s.448
RA (top/right)	11h21m51s.334
RA (bottom/right)	11h17m39s.481
RA (bottom/left)	11h17m48s.202

Dec (center)	+13°16′46″.14
Dec (top/left)	+12°31′27″.37
Dec (top/right)	+14°03′20″.12
Dec (bottom/right)	+14°02′03″.68
Dec (bottom/left)	+12°30′10″.37

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):