winter galaxies

Winter is not normally a good time for galaxies because the Milky Way is porminent in the sky, but while waiting for comet Lovejoy to rise, I used the time to spend a little exposure time on some bright galaxies.

The Leo Triplet

Leo Triplet

This trio of galaxies in the constellation Leo is an old favourite of mine. M65, M66 and NGC3268 create a nice triangle. The galaxies are physically near each other, and some disturbance can be seen on deeper images.

Astro-Professional 80mm ED refractor, TS Flattener, Nikon D7000 camera, QHY5 autoguider, Super Polaris mount. Exposure was 9x180s at f/7

M108 & M97

 

The galaxy M108 and the planetary nebula M97 are NOT near each other, the blue planetary nebula is a part of our galaxy, while M108 is about 46 million lightyears away.

Astro-Professional 80mm ED refractor, TS Flattener, Nikon D7000 camera, QHY5 autoguider, Super Polaris mount. Exposure was 8x180s at f/7