Winter is not normally a good time for galaxies because the Milky Way is porminent in the sky, but while waiting for comet Lovejoy to rise, I used the time to spend a little exposure time on some bright galaxies.

The Leo Triplet

This trio of galaxies in the constellation Leo is an old favourite of mine. M65, M66 and NGC3268 create a nice triangle. The galaxies are physically near each other, and some disturbance can be seen on deeper images.

Astro-Professional 80mm ED refractor, TS Flattener, Nikon D7000 camera, QHY5 autoguider, Super Polaris mount. Exposure was 9x180s at f/7

The galaxy M108 and the planetary nebula M97 are NOT near each other, the blue planetary nebula is a part of our galaxy, while M108 is about 46 million lightyears away.

Astro-Professional 80mm ED refractor, TS Flattener, Nikon D7000 camera, QHY5 autoguider, Super Polaris mount. Exposure was 8x180s at f/7