Leo Trio

The Leo Trio lies about 35 or 36 million light years away. These galaxies are gravitationally bound together. The one in the upper left, M66, is roughly 100,000 light years across. Assuming these systems are all roughly the same distance, they may well be within 1 million light years of each other. It's no wonder that they show signs of distortion. Look carefully at M66. Which side appears longer, left or right? Whichever you decide, it is clear that M66's two sides differ, and this is thought to be the effect of having neighbors nearby. The galaxy on the right, NGC 3628, is also distorted. Its stars are being pulled out all around it, like too much lettuce spilling out of a ham sandwich. Even more interesting, NGC 3628 has a long tidal tail that is too faint to appear in this image but is clear in this very cool and very deep image by Steve Mandel (processed by Ken Crawford).

This image is the last of my January 18 run. This was also taken with the AT66ED and the Atik 16, unguided on the LXD75. It is about an hour's worth of 10-second exposures. No darks, no flats, no bias frames.