Leo Triplet is a small group of galaxies (3-5 of them), in the constellation Leo, about 35 million light-years away. The group includes 2 Messier objects, M65 and M66 and also an NGC target, NGC 3628. Some researchers claim that the group is part of the larger group of galaxies also known as Leon Group (or M96 Group). More info about Leo's Triplet at the end of the post.

Leo Triplet can be found at around 2 degrees south of (Θ) Theta Leonis, Chertan.

This picture is the result of almost 700 light frames (600 broadband and 100 through Baader Planetarium UHC-S 2", stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop CS6. Light frames were collected within three nights, April's 3rd, 7th and 9th.

All frames were captured with my Sky Watcher Black Diamond 750/150 on an EQ3-2, from suburbs of Athens, on a sky quite full of light pollution. I attached my Nikon D90 on the scope and shot at prime forcus. As I don't own GoTo or guiding scope and camera, I was only able of capturing frames of ten to twenty seconds without noticing intense star trails. So I had to really bump the ISO and face a lot of noise.

However, I am really satisfied with this image as it's my first time capturing galaxies.

Nikon D90

Focal Length of 750mm

ISO 3200

Shutter speed 10s

f/5 (Scope's focal ratio)

M65 is an intermediate spiral galaxy of 10.25 Apparent Magnitude. The galaxy is low in dust and gas, and there is little star formation in it, although there has been some relatively recently in the arms. The ratio of old stars to new stars is correspondingly quite high. M65's disk appears slightly warped, and its relatively recent burst of star formation is also suggestive of some external disturbance. Rots (1978) suggests that the two other galaxies in the Leo Triplet interacted with each other about 800 million years ago. Recent research by Zhiyu Duan suggests that M65 may also have interacted, though much less strongly. He also notes that M65 may have a central bar—it is difficult to tell because the galaxy is seen from an oblique angle—a feature which is suggestive of tidal disruption.

M66 is also an intermediate spiral galaxy of 8.9 Apparent Magnitude. It lies 31 million light-years away and is about 95 thousand light-years across with striking dust lanes and bright star clusters along sweeping spiral arms. M66 has a morphological classification of SABb, indicating a spiral shape with a weak bar feature and loosely wound arms. The isophotal axis ratio is 0.32, indicating that it is being viewed at an angle.

NGC 3628 also known as the Hamburger Galaxy or Sarah's Galaxy, is an unbarred spiral galaxy of 10.2 Apparent Magnitude. It has an approximately 300,000 light-years long tidal tail. Its most conspicuous feature is the broad and obscuring band of dust located along the outer edge of its spiral arms, effectively transecting the galaxy to the view from Earth.

M65, M66 and NGC 3628 are known to be interacting with each other.