It’s been awhile since I imaged the “Leo Trio” (aka Leo Triplet) of galaxies: M65, M66, and NGC 3628. I wanted to see if my latest equipment, software, and somewhat darker skies made a difference.
I’d say so… this is a total of 25 hours of exposure time, including some Hydrogen-alpha filter data to pull out the red nebulas seen mostly in M66.
This group of galaxies is about 35 million light-years away… and you can guess which constellation it’s in đŸ™‚
Three nearby galaxies: M65, M66, and NGC 3628. All three are spiral galaxies, viewed from different angles. You can guess which one is called the “Hamburger Galaxy” đŸ™‚
We’re back with our live viewing of the cosmos! Join us as we view the Veil Nebula via a camera attached to our telescope – it’s a supernova remnant from a massive star that exploded 8,000 years ago, and it’s gorgeous. We’ll also talk about tonight’s expected meteor storm as the Earth passes through a…
This week’s target was Thor’s Helmet (NGC 2359), an emission nebula in Canis Major a rather distant 12,000 light-years away. It’s formed by a Wolf-Rayet star in its center, which is a crazy-hot star whose immense stellar wind is bunching up and ionizing the gases around it in these complex patterns. It’ll probably go supernova…
Here’s another galaxy with no nearby neighbors, and no catchy nicknames either: NGC 3344. It’s about 22.5 million light-years away within the constellation Leo Minor. Although it doesn’t get the love it deserves, it’s a glorious face-on barred spiral galaxy that’s about half the size of our own Milky Way. Explore the space around it,…
Formally IC1396, this cloud of interstellar gas and dust is thought to be an active site of new star formation. And with a little imagination, it kind of looks like an elephant’s trunk. There’s more to it than you see here, but I tried to get an interesting framing. From this angle we see a…
Located 63 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices, M91 is part of the Virgo cluster of galaxies – and if you zoom in and explore this image, you’ll find many other galaxies surrounding it, and also far in the distance beyond it.
