re: The Leo Trio (more results from April 19)

The Leo Trio is an often imaged object, and thus offers abundant opportunity for comparisons with the work of others. I'd like a tighter shot to show more detail in the galaxies, but that goal will have to wait for "new equipment." (Click on the photo for a larger image.)

The Trio (in the middle of the image) is comprised of NGC3628 at the upper right, M65 on the bottom right, and M66 on the left. One additional galaxy is visible at the bottom of the image near the middle. With additional "new equipment" (like a dedicated astroimaging camera) and longer exposures additional galaxies would be visible -- there are literally dozens in the FOV.

The subs were acquired before those of Markarian's Chain. I was still "tweaking" the autoguiding, so there is some trailing visible. But given that the majority of the subs were 3 minute exposures, I'm not disappointed. Live and learn, eh? Likely I need to reprocess the subs, and eliminate a few frames, but that will have to wait another day of processing.

Clear skies.

Max

Image Acquisition and Processing Data

Camera control with ImagesPlus 2.82 using the Xti and Borg f/4 astrograph on the CG5 mount
Autoguiding with C102, PHD and Meade DSI
14 subs at 1 min/ISO1600
15 subs at 3 min/ISO1600
(59 total minutes)
Eight darks at 1 min/ISO 1600
No bias or flats
Converted, calibrated, aligned, stacked, digitally developed (settings 0, 1.04, 4500, soft sharpen), auto stretch, saturation-brightness adjustment 1.2 in IP
Resized in PS CS2
Astronomy Tools star reduction action, increase star color action
Small levels and curves adjustment in PS CS2
Rotate 180d
Converted for the web in PS CS2