Astronomy

Enter image description for image (leotriplet-gxy180SecISO1600_2xAvg_ip-ddp5919.jpg)

(01/15/2008)

M065, m066, Leo Triplet of galaxies.

First light for the TEC 140 f/7 scope. Seeing was bad. This is 2x180sec images at 1600iso averaged with Images Plus 2.83 and ddp at 5919.

Messier 66
Spiral Galaxy M66 (NGC 3627), type Sb, in Leo
in the Leo Triplett

Right Ascension 11 : 20.2 (h:m)
Declination +12 : 59 (deg:m)
Distance 35000 (kly)
Visual Brightness 8.9 (mag)
Apparent Dimension 8x2.5 (arc min)

Discovered 1780 by Charles Messier.


Excerpt from seds.org:

Messier 66 (M66, NGC 3627), together with its neighbors M65 and NGC 3628, forms a most conspicuous triplet of galaxies, the Leo Triplett or M66 group, located at a distance of about 35 million light years.

M66 is considerably larger than its neighbor, M65, and has a well developed but not well defined central bulge, and is therefore classified Sb. Obviously its spiral arms are deformed, probably because of the encounters with its neighbors. They seem to be distorted and displaced above the plane of the galaxy. Note how one of the spiral arms seems to pass over the left side of the central bulge. Much dust is visible here, as well as a few pink nebulae, signs of star formation, near the end of one of the arms.

This image was obtained by David Malin with the 3.9-meter Anglo Australian Telescope; interested readers may obtain more detailed information on this image.

Together with its neighbor M65, M66 has been discovered by Charles Messier, who cataloged it on March 1, 1780, remarks that he missed these two objects in 1773, when a comet passed between them on November 1 to 2, 1773, probably because of the light of the comet. Because of a dubious error, Admiral Smyth has assigned this discovery of M65 and M66 (and M68) to Pierre Méchain, a view which was adopted by Kenneth Glyn Jones somewhen in the 1960s, and consequently, in many modern sources, despite the fact that Messier doesn't acknowledge such a prior sighting, which he did in all other cases.

Three supernovae have appeared in this galaxy:

1973R which was of type II and reached mag 15 was found on Dec 12, 1973.
1989B was discovered on Jan 31, 1989 and became as bright as mag 12.2 on Feb 1, 1989.
1997bs was discovered by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search Team as it occurred on April 15, 1997 at 13" west, 67" south of the galaxy's center and reached mag 17.0; this was of peculiar type IIn.
Halton Arp has included M66 in his Catalogue of Peculiar Galaxies as entry No. 16. Moreover, he assigned the number 317 to the Leo Triplett (M66 together with M65 and NGC 3628).

Messier 65
Spiral Galaxy M65 (NGC 3623), type Sa, in Leo
in the Leo Triplett

Right Ascension 11 : 18.9 (h:m)

Declination +13 : 05 (deg:m)

Distance 35000 (kly)

Visual Brightness 9.3 (mag)

Apparent Dimension 8x1.5 (arc min)



Discovered 1780 by Charles Messier.

Messier 65 (M65, NGC 3623), together with its neighbors M66 and NGC 3628, forms a most conspicuous triplet of galaxies, the Leo Triplett or M66 group, located at a distance of about 35 million light years.

Although it is close to and thus under the gravitational influence of its neighbors, M65 looks like a very "normal" Sa type spiral and seems to have felt little influence. It has a prominent central lense and tightly wound spiral arms, plus a prominent dust lane marking the facing edge. The luminous disk is dominated by a smooth old stellar population. Near the lane, some knots are visible, which, according to J.D. Wray, may be associated with star forming regions. The lane may hide regions of star formation usually associated with such features in spiral galaxies.

Our image of M65 was obtained by David Malin with the Anglo Australian Telescope; interested readers may obtain more detailed information on our image.

M65, together with its neighbor, M66, has been discovered by Charles Messier, who cataloged it on March 1, 1780, describes it as "very faint nebula without stars." Because of a dubious error, Admiral Smyth has assigned this discovery of M65 and M66 (and M68) to Pierre Méchain, a view which was adopted by Kenneth Glyn Jones somewhen in the 1960s, and consequently, in many sources, despite the fact that Messier doesn't acknowledge such a prior sighting, which he did in all other cases.

Halton Arp includes M65 in his entry number 317 of his Catalogue of Peculiar Galaxies, which denotes the Leo Triplett.

NGC 3628
Spiral Galaxy NGC 3628 (= H V.8 = Arp 317), type Sc, in Leo
Right Ascension 11 : 20.3 (h:m)
Declination +13 : 36 (deg:m)
Distance 35000.0 (kly)
Visual Brightness 9.5 (mag)
Apparent Dimension 14.0 x 3.6 (arc min)


Discovered by William Herschel in 1784.

NGC 3628 forms a conspicuous group with M65 and M66, the Leo Triplet or M66 group (named after the brightest of the three).

NGC 3628 is the faintest and most difficult in the group, just faint enough to have escaped Messier's small telescopes (although it may be that his later instruments might have shown it, if he had ever looked at this place under very good conditions). Thus its discovery was left to William Herschel who cataloged it as H V.8 following its discovery on April 8, 1784.

NGC 3628 is seen edge-on. A conspicuous band of dark dust clouds form a broad equatorial band, which obscures the galaxy's bright central region, and hides most of the bright young stars in its spiral arms. The dust band, or belt, is obviously distorted and deformed in the outer regions of the galaxy. The reason for this deformation is evidently the gravitational interaction with its two bright neighbors, M65 and M66.

Our image was obtained by David Malin with the Anglo-Australian Telescope. This image is copyrighted and may be used for private purpose only. For any other kind of use, including internet mirroring and storing on CD-ROM, please contact the Photo Permissions Department (photo at aaoepp.aao.gov.au) of the Anglo Australian Observatory.