The Leo Trio

The Leo Trio of Galaxies - M65, M66, and NGC 3628

In the image above, M65 is the oblique spiral in the upper right, M66 is below, and NGC 3628 is the edge-on spiral to the left. Notice the faint trail of dust extending below and to the left of this galaxy. The cluster is quite easy to find between the Theta and Iota stars in Leo. These bright galaxies can be detected in dark sky using binoculars and any telescope. The galaxies are close enough that strong gravitational interactions are visible such as the inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the distorted spiral arms of M66. The group's distance from earth is estimated to be 30 million light-years. M65 and M66 were discovered by Mechain in March 1780 when they were also catalogued by Messier.

Takahashi Epsilon180 astrograph (f/2.8); SBIG ST-8300M (-15 C); LRGB with Baader filters (Luminance 300"x5 (1x1 binned) and RGB 300"x3 (2x2 binned)); Takahashi EM-200 Temma 2M; CCDSoft, MaxIm DL5 and Photoshop CS4, Kent, OH, March 21, 2012