M65 Group with 127mm APO Refractor (Steve Argereow)

M65 Group with 127mm APO Refractor

Messier 65 (M65) is an intermediate spiral galaxy that forms the Leo Triplet with the nearby Messier 66 and NGC 3628.
The three galaxies are located in the constellation Leo. M65 lies at a distance of about 35 million light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 10.25. It has the designation NGC 3623 in the New General Catalogue. Messier 65 occupies an area of 8.079 by 2.454 arc minutes of apparent sky, which corresponds to a linear diameter of about 90,000 light years. It is one of the most popular targets among amateur astronomers as it can be seen and photographed in the same field of view as its neighbors, M66 and NGC 3628.

Information Credits: Wikipedia

Last week I imaged M65, M66 and NGC-3628 with my 80mm APO Refractor w/a x.8 reducer total focal length 385mm at f/4.8. I had 61 x 240 second exposures for a total integration time of 4 hours 4 minutes.

Galaxy season is coming so I used my Explore Scientific 127mm CF scope for the first time this year at f/5.25 667mm focal length. I wanted a comparison, so I increased the exposure time to 300 seconds. I was only able to obtain 2 hours and 50 minutes total time, before clouds rolled in. However, even with less time
the difference is very apparent. Note: I tried to keep processing as close as possible.

Telescope: Explorer Scientific 127mm CF APO Refractor
Explore Scientific X0.7 Reducer f/5.25 (Focal Length 667mm)
Mount IOptron CEM40

Camera ZWOASI6200MC-Pro Temp -10C, Binning 1 x 1, Gain 100 Offset 50
ZWO EFW

34 X 300 Second Exposures W/Optolong L-Pro Filter
40 Dark Frames
Total Integration Time: 2 Hours 50 Minutes
Acquisition with SharpCap
Stacked with Astro Pixel Processor
Guiding PHD2
Processed with Astra Image
Photo taken from Seven Lakes, NC Bortle 4.5

B

Title: Raw stacked Image

Uploaded: ...

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5594709
PixInsight job	3R5ODPLFBHD10SZX082JFZYT837PVZHG
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	11h20m02s.44
RA (top/left)	11h18m21s.89
RA (top/right)	11h18m19s.40
RA (bottom/right)	11h21m42s.59
RA (bottom/left)	11h21m45s.90

Dec (center)	+13°17′41″.4
Dec (top/left)	+13°49′05″.9
Dec (top/right)	+12°46′50″.6
Dec (bottom/right)	+12°46′14″.7
Dec (bottom/left)	+13°48′31″.9

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