<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"><html> <head><TITLE>The galaxies of leo at Jools and Tom's Astrophotography Pages</TITLE> <META content="text/html; charset=unicode" http-equiv=Content-Type> <LINK href="../Astro.css" rel=stylesheet type=text/css> <META content="MSHTML 5.00.2920.0" name=GENERATOR> </head> <BODY> <CENTER> <h1> Galaxies in Leo</h1> <P>The Spring constellation of Leo, with its distinctive "backwards question mark" shape&nbsp;contains several interesting galaxies for us to point our cameras at. Below are the first pictures we have obtained of objects beyond our own galaxy. The distances involved are staggering, and near impossible to convey. Leo is just a taster for the delights of Virgo, which we will be hoping to image over the next month, weather permitting!</P> <P><STRONG>NGC 3190, 3187, 3193</STRONG></P></CENTER> <CENTER><IMG src="../images/200303 - Leo Triplet.jpg" ></IMG> <TABLE border=0> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=right>Image taken</TD> <TD></TD> <TD>13/14 March 2003<BR>50&nbsp;images from c.125 stacked&nbsp;frames of 15 seconds exposure.</TD></TR> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=right>Location</TD> <TD></TD> <TD>Tom's back garden, near Southampton<BR>Hazy, half moon.</TD></TR> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=right>Statistics</TD> <TD></TD> <TD> Distance:&nbsp;&nbsp;c. 60 Million&nbsp;light years (&nbsp;350 Billion billion&nbsp;miles). </TD></TR> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=right>Equipment used</TD> <TD></TD> <TD>Helios 8" newtonian reflector<BR>Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 SC Long Exposure Modified&nbsp;(no lens)<BR>K3CCDTools, Registax and Photoshop</TD></TR> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=right>Comments</TD> <TD></TD> <TD> <P> This is our first real deep sky image of galaxies. The fuzzy blob at the top is NGC 3193. This is an elliptical galaxy, and fairly deviod of details. The galaxy in the middle is NGC 3190, which is a tightly wound spiral.&nbsp;In the bottom&nbsp;right&nbsp;it is just possible to see a faint smudge of NGC 3187. Although not as impressive as our Orion pictures, it is a completely different class of object. Galaxies are much further way, and much dimmer. Each of the galaxies in this picture contains many millions of stars. The other bright stars in the picture are in our own galaxy, and many times closer.</P> <P> <P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR></TABLE></CENTRE> <CENTRE><P><STRONG>M66</STRONG></P></CENTER> <CENTER><IMG src="../images/20030313 M66.jpg" ></CENTER> <CENTER></IMG></CENTER> <CENTER> <TABLE border=0 style="LEFT: 10px; TOP: 1350px"> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=right>Image taken</TD> <TD></TD> <TD>13 March 2003<BR>50&nbsp;images from c.200 stacked&nbsp;frames of 15 seconds exposure.</TD></TR> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=right>Location</TD> <TD></TD> <TD>Tom's back garden, near Southampton<BR>Hazy, half moon.</TD></TR> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=right>Statistics</TD> <TD></TD> <TD> Distance:&nbsp;&nbsp;c.&nbsp;35 Million&nbsp;light years. </TD></TR> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=right>Equipment used</TD> <TD></TD> <TD>Helios 8" newtonian reflector<BR>Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 SC Long Exposure Modified&nbsp;(no lens)<BR>K3CCDTools, Registax and Photoshop</TD></TR> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=right>Comments</TD> <TD></TD> <TD> <P> M66 is a face on spiral galaxy in Leo. Again, the bright stars are in our own galaxy. The spiral arms of this galaxy can be seen in this picture. The bright glow top left is due to the CCD Camera itself and nothing to do with anything astronomical!</P></TD></TR></TABLE></CENTER> <CENTER>&nbsp;</CENTER> <CENTER>&nbsp;</CENTER></TD></TR></TABLE> <CENTRE><P align=center><STRONG>M65</STRONG></P> <CENTER></CENTER> <CENTER><IMG src="../images/20030313 M65.jpg" ></CENTER> <CENTER></IMG></CENTER> <CENTER> <TABLE border=0 style="LEFT: 10px; TOP: 1350px"> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=right>Image taken</TD> <TD></TD> <TD>13 March 2003<BR>50&nbsp;images from c.200 stacked&nbsp;frames of 15 seconds exposure.</TD></TR> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=right>Location</TD> <TD></TD> <TD>Tom's back garden, near Southampton<BR>Hazy, half moon.</TD></TR> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=right>Statistics</TD> <TD></TD> <TD> Distance:&nbsp;&nbsp;c.&nbsp;35 Million&nbsp;light years. </TD></TR> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=right>Equipment used</TD> <TD></TD> <TD>Helios 8" newtonian reflector<BR>Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 SC Long Exposure Modified&nbsp;(no lens)<BR>K3CCDTools, Registax and Photoshop</TD></TR> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=right>Comments</TD> <TD></TD> <TD> <P> M65 is an edge on spiral galaxy, similiar to the one above but from a different perspective. This object is very faint, however the galaxy can be seen extended across a large part of the image. The darker areas just above the centre (near the star) and left and right of centre are caused by large clouds of cold dust in M65 blocking the light out. It should also be noted that at some point in the distant past M66 and M65 brushed past each other, causing the slighly lopsided appearance of M66.</P></TD></TR></TABLE></CENTER> <CENTER>&nbsp;</CENTER> <CENTER>&nbsp;</CENTER></TD></TR></TABLE> <br> <br> <A href="/">Home</A> | <A href="fgallery.html">Back</A><br> Page last updated 2003-03-25 <CENTER></CENTER> </BODY> </html>