M65 and M66 are the closest pair of the Leo Triplet and were discovered by Charles Messier in 1780. The third galaxy in the group is NGC3628. M66 is an intermediate galaxy*, and M65 may be also but our view is rather too oblique to be sure. Both show signs of disruption and have probably had a close encounter with either or both of the other two at some time in the past. They are 35 million light-years distant. There is a beautiful picture of this group in the APOD for 9 March 2006.
* Intermediate spiral galaxies are intermediate between barred spirals and unbarred spirals. They are designated SAB and a face-on example is M61.
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M66 is on the left and M65 on the right. They are separated by 19½ arc minutes. Date and Time: 5th December 2011 04:16 to 04:26 UT Camera: Starlight Xpress MX716 Telescope: LX200 with 0.33 focal reducer and Astronomik CLS filter Capture: Star_mx7. Exposure 60 sec, 10 frames Processing: Star_mx7. Black level, enhancement factor 25, black level, on each frame. Irfanview. Conversion to png format. RegiStax6. 10 frames stacked, Gaussian wavelets Scheme 2. PhotoImpact. Contrast 4, Focus Magic 2,100 |
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