#ngc3628

Triplet―M66 Group in Leo

at Amagi Plateau Golf Course in Shizuoka Pref, Japan.

Camera: Canon EOS 6D (no mod)

Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-85EDP (450mm F5.3)

Mount: Takahashi EM-11 Temma2Jr. No touch guide.

Edge-on Spiral Galaxy NGC 3628

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. NGC 3628 is a large, edge-on spiral galaxy. It is one of three galaxies in the "Leo Triplet". NGC 3628 has a warped disk and a long tidal tail (the faint blue line stretching to the upper-left corner of the image) that are the result of gravitational interactions with the other two galaxies in the triplet. The image was generated with observations in the B (blue), V (green), I (orange) and Hydrogen-Alpha (red) filters. This image is rotated 37 degrees clockwise fron North is up, East is to the left. 

credit line: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and H. Schweiker (WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF)

Leo Triplet (M66 group)

This small group of galaxies consists of the Messier objects M65 (NGC3623), lower right, and M66 (NGC3627), lower left, along with the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC3628, upper left. These three galaxies form a rather attractive triplet at the heart of the M66 group, which includes a number of other galaxies which are "out of shot". The Leo Triplet also appears in Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. At a distance of 35 million light-years, maybe a little further, the M66 group may be related to M96 (NGC3368) and the Leo I galaxy group.

credit line: REU program/NOAO/AURA/NSF