Leo Triplet and The Tidal Tail of NGC 3628

[Leonardo70]

It 'was an odyssey set aside the data to make this photo. It took me a few months. Inside the Leo Triplet , a tris of galaxies with NGC3628, M65 and M66. In particular, I tried to show the tidal tail of NGC3628, a length that say amazing is an understatement.

I hope you'll find it interesting:
http://www.starkeeper.it/LeoTriplet.htm

A web link to a doc about star formation in the tidal tail of the Leo Triplet Galaxy NGC3628 from the Astronomical Journal:
http://m.iopscience.iop.org/1538-3881/115/6/2331/fulltext/?providedHtml=970514.text.html

All the best and thanks for looking,
Leo

[Leonardo70]

Thank you Paul. Happy you like it. I'll try to add more data next year.

All the best,
Leo

[Placidus]

Magnificent, Leo. I had no idea that the tidal tail was there. Spectacular capture.

[SkyViking]

That's awesome, I really like the huge FOV and natural looking colours, while still clearly showing the tail and faint variations across the field. Plenty of beautiful background galaxies to explore too in the full res image.
I also had no idea NGC 3628 had such a prominent long tail, so thanks for the view :)

[strongmanmike]

I agree with Rolf here Leo, a vey cool capture. Getting NGC 3628's full (or most of it) tidal tail is a bit like revealing Centaurus A's very faint hocky stick shaped outer extensions ie few have manage to capture them and it would seem many don't even know they are there :thumbsup:

Funnily enough I was thinking perhaps Rolf had been hitting this with one of his marathon efforts, but it seems not...wonder what he is doing in his secret laboratory?? :computer::einstein:

Mike

[RickS]

Great image, Leo, and nice of them to name the galaxy group after you :lol:

[strongmanmike]

The whole constellation even :eyepop::lol:

[Leonardo70]

:D :D :P Thanks .... custom constellation !!

It was one of the more complex image to achieve for me, my sky are limited to to 20.2 SQM-L in the best scenario and doing 15 minutes of exposure at F3.6 becomes a little difficult. The sky background is immersed in a very weak dust and to inexperienced eyes it may seem exaggerated noise, although the luminance is made from 10 hours of exposure (at F3.6 for me is an absolute record and a bit crazy :)). Thanks for the comments and for having viewed the pictures, for me it's always a pleasure when I can show something little known.

All the best,
Leo

[Ross G]

Beautiful wide photo Leo.

Great detail.

Ross.

[Leonardo70]

Thanks Ross !

All the best,
Leo

[Geoff45]

Very nice Leonardo. Good rendition of the tidal tail and you've nicely brought ou a big halo around M66. I do think, however, that more careful processing might bring out some more detail in M65.
Geoff

[Leonardo70]

Thanks Geoff ... i tried to do my best. The focal lenght is only 383mm.

All the best,
Leo

[cometcatcher]

Excellent shot Leo! Might be something to try with my ED80 when I have 50 hours to spare. :question:

[Leonardo70]

Kevin you can try for sure with 30" sub ... this is one possible way.
Thanks.

All the best,
Leo

[marco]

Missed this and apparently we were aiming at the same target in closer times, even if from two different hemispheres :)
Lovely image as your usual, amazingly detailed and sharp in particular considering your very short focal length! :thumbsup:
Marco