License: CC0
Original Size: 3000 × 2000 pixels
Description: Messier 66 / M66 / NGC 3627
Messier 65 / M65 / NGC 3623 NGC 3628 / The Hamburger Galaxy
The Leo Triplet, also known as the M66 Group, is a small group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away. M66 (lower right) is a colorful spiral galaxy about 95,000 light-years in diameter with striking dust lanes and young, blue star clusters along its spiral arms. M65 (upper right) is a spiral galaxy with warmer colors, indicating a lack of new star formation. NGC 3628 (left) is a spiral galaxy seen edge-on. It has a tidal tail 300,000 light-years long (faintly visible to its lower left) due to gravitational forces from its companions.
This is a new version of an image from 2019/2020. I ran through the entire pre-processing (700+ images) and post-processing workflow again using some new PixInsight tools like Local Normalization (before integration), Spectrophotometric Color Calibration, BlurXTterminator, NoiseXTerminator, StarXTerminator (to process the stars and galaxies separately), Repaired HSV Separation, and Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch. The result is a massive improvement over my previous edits. 2019 attempt: flic.kr/p/2garFfr 2021 attempt: flic.kr/p/2kJBo62
Total integration: 11 hours 49 minutes (709 minutes) 03/13/19: 228 x 60 seconds ISO800 03/13/19: 2 x 120 seconds ISO800 03/16/19: 235 x 60 seconds ISO800 01/26/20: 41 x 120 seconds ISO400 02/15/20: 43 x 120 seconds ISO400 02/22/20: 37 x 120 seconds ISO400
Location: Charlottesville, VA SQM: 19.22 mag/arcsec^2 (Bortle 6) Camera: Canon T3i (stock/unmodified) Telescope: Explore Scientific ED80 f/6.0 Apochromatic Refractor (with ES field flattener) Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G Guide scope: Svbony 50mm f/4.0 Guide Scope Guide camera: Orion StarShoot AutoGuider Capture software: N.I.N.A., ASTAP, PHD2, Magic Lantern (2019 images only)
Processing software: PixInsight, Paint.NET