Taken at f6.3 in my SCT, I am only able to fit the 'duo' in here, they'll have to do without their hamburger. Captured in Envisage, successfully aligned and stacked in ASTAP (60% quality) and processed in Startools. Despite taking flats, these have not worked properly, leaving artifacts, and I continue to be plagued with gradients. The detail and colour in the galaxies processed very easily, but I have had to use a mask to push back the gradient/noise, and this has left the galaxies looking as though they have been 'stuck' on the background.
M65 and M66 form a pair with NGC 3628 as the famous Leo trio, which I imaged earlier in the year in my small semi-APO
https://www.astrobin.com/f8zvbl/. M65 to the right of my image lies around 35m LY from us, and M66 around 31m LY with a diameter of ~95,000 LY. Despite the oblique angle, some detail can be seen in the core of M65. The intermediate spiral, M66, complete with a weak bar, is awash with blue star forming regions, and a clump of red HI emissions from strong interactions with NGC 3628. As faint smudges in the eyepiece, imaged through the same equipment, this duo comes alive with beautiful colour, contrasts and fine detail.
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