NGC3628
Edge on Peculiar Galaxy in Leo

 

            
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 This edge
            on spiral forms a perfect trio with the more famous M65/M66 pair
            and can be seen faintly in the 80mm finder. The upper panel here
            shows the final image of this object, while the lower frame is
            a key with an overlay of Megastar star atlas to show the small
            galaxies in the field. The brightest of these is 15.6 magnitude
            and Megastar plots the faintest at 17.6. None of the quasars
            seen in the map show up since they are at 20th magnitude.

            
Galaxy Description:

            
This galaxy is
            inclined about 7 degrees from perfectly edge on and spans 15
            arc minutes in size. Although bright at 10.3rd magnitude, it
            is spread out and dim, with a peculiar widening of the spiral
            arms on the ends.

Optics:  12.5" f/5 Newtonian  - Lumicon Coma Corrector
Platform:  Astrophysics AP1200
Camera:  Hutech Modified Canon XTi @ ISO800
Exposure:  12 x 5m = 1 hour
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  6/10, Transparency 7/10  
Outside Temperature:  45F
Processing Tools:  Photoshop CS2, Images Plus 3.82
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