In the Lions belly lies a small group of galaxies including M95, M96 and M105. This object is a SBb barred spiral, burning bright at 10.5 magnitude and is a whopping 7.5 arcmins in size. Nearly face on, with an inclination of only 4 degrees, there is a strong color differentiation between the older yellow core stars and the outer younger blue stars in the arms. The Wray Atlas points out that this is one of the less common nuclear ring galaxies. The core is very peculiar, and is surrounded by areas of very active star formation right near the very core itself.

Instrument:  12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian
Platform:  Astrophysics 1200 QMD
CCD Camera:  SBIG ST7E w/Enhanced Cooling
Exposure:  LRGB = 60:20:20:20 (RGB Binned 2x2)
RGB Combine Ratio:  1: .95: 1.8
Filters:  RGB Tricolor
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing FMHW = 3.0 arcsec, Transparency 8/10
Outside Temperature:  10 C
CCD Temperature:  -25 C
Processing:  Maxim DL, Photoshop, AIP4WIN, PW Pro.