BACKYARD SPACE in JOHNSTON: The Leo Trio

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The M66 group, otherwise known as the Leo Triplet, is in the constellation Leo and is a group of spiral galaxies.

It lies roughly 35 million Light-years from Earth and contains Messier 65, Messier 66, and NGC 3628.

All three galaxies have been affected by gravitational interactions with one another.

This image was taken back in February with my old one-shot color camera, The ZWO ASI533MC-Pro and Optolong L-Pro filter to block out unwanted light pollution.

This was a total of 3.5 hours of image integration taken from my backyard in Johnston.

Technical Card:

  • Imaging telescopes or lenses: William Optics Zenith 73 II
  • Mounts: SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro
  • Guiding telescopes or lenses: William Optics 50mm Guidescope rotolock William Optics 50mm F/4 Guide Scope
  • Guiding cameras: ZWO ASI120MM-Mini ASI120MM-Mini
  • Focal reducers: Williams Optics Flat73A
  • Software: Adobe Phosotshop CC  ·  PixInsight  ·  NINA 10.1  ·  Sharpcap  ·  PHD2 Guiding 2.62 PHD2.62
  • Filters: Optlong L-Pro
  • Dates: Feb. 10, 2021
  • Frames: 145x90" (3h 37' 30")
  • Integration: 3h 37' 30"
  • Avg. Moon age: 28.23 days
  • Avg. Moon phase: 1.89%

 EDITOR’S NOTE: Lucas “Luc” Maguire captured this image from his backyard in Johnston. He will be submitting his deep space images to the Sun Rise for publication each week. Maguire’s photography can also be found at his Instagram account @oceanstateastro and his Twitter feed @OceanStateAstro.

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