Posted on 03/21/2021 5:29:38 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: This popular group leaps into the early evening sky around the March equinox and the northern hemisphere spring. Famous as the Leo Triplet, the three magnificent galaxies found in the prominent constellation Leo gather here in one astronomical field of view. Crowd pleasers when imaged with even modest telescopes, they can be introduced individually as NGC 3628 (right), M66 (upper left), and M65 (bottom). All three are large spiral galaxies but tend to look dissimilar, because their galactic disks are tilted at different angles to our line of sight. NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy, is temptingly seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanes cutting across its puffy galactic plane. The disks of M66 and M65 are both inclined enough to show off their spiral structure. Gravitational interactions between galaxies in the group have left telltale signs, including the tidal tails and warped, inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the drawn out spiral arms of M66. This gorgeous view of the region spans over 1 degree (two full moons) on the sky in a frame that covers over half a million light-years at the trio's estimated distance of 30 million light-years. Of course the spiky foreground stars lie well within our own Milky Way.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
Beyond amazing image!
Part of me thinks this is another fake picture but i’ll let it slide lol... but I do have a serious question for you since youre the one who posts these threads...
Do you know by chance, can any of these distant Galaxies be seen with the naked eye? If wee gaze at any known Constilations, are any of the assumed stars that for the constelation, infact, actual galaxies that appear as stars?
And, add the stars in the background are actually there galaxies
The ones with the 4 ‘spikes’ are stars in our own galaxy. Most, if not all?, of the rest I believe are distant galaxies, many of which are so far away they appear star-like at this resolution.
At 2.5 million light-years from Earth, the Andromeda Galaxy is the most distant object visible in the Northern Hemisphere with the naked eye. It’s the closest major galaxy to the Milky Way, and can only be seen if you have a really dark sky.
Andromeda galaxy with a telescope:
Andromeda Location:
Andromeda without a telescope:
wow! thanks for that info!! I will be looking for it come the fall!! (Trips to Chille are on hold at present due to Covid! :) )
Great post!
to God be the glory.................incredible picture
M31 and M33 are (maybe) passed in the naked eye department! There have been reports of people in VERY dark sites having seen M81 and M82 naked eye (not by me though :D ) There are a few others out there that have also been reported.
Then there is IC 342, if it weren’t for dust clouds in the Milky Way (the Zone of Avoidance), it would probably be naked eye. It’s so obscured though, that, they aren’t sure if it is part of the local group, or, just beyond it.
I regularly look at this group with a scope (I’ve a 12.5 dob) and, while not as rich as any photo, the view is quite good all the same. Real photo there.
As for background galaxies, a quick look at Sky Safari on my phone shows a pair of 17th mag galaxies in between the 3, but, not much else. It could just be a more bland area of the universe. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t background galaxies in the photo. That means that the ones in the background are very distant and dim. It would take more time with the camera to bring them out.
bttt!!
I went back and actually clicked on the photo. Yeh, there ARE a LOT of galaxies in the background of that photo, but, I think that the stars still outnumber them in the photo. Unfortunately, my computer is doing something I can’t stop right now, or, I could look at Cartes Du Ceil and get better data.
Anyone else have a copy of Cartes with the extra galaxy data loaded (Hyperleda 2017)?
The Leo Trio?
Weren’t they the opener for the Dave Clark Five?.................
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