Leo Triplet

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Leo Triplet

[Public Domain] 17 Apr 2015 Dylan O'Donnell
CATEGORY : Astrophotography
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And now for something completely different! The Leo Triplet, M65, M66 & NGC3628.

When I share space photos I like to tell you how far away the light was. Eg Earth was in the bronze age when the light you see in the Rosette Nebula started it’s journey to your eyeball.

The light from these galaxies are so far away that when it left them on the journey to your eyeball – homo sapiens did not yet exist! The earth had mammals and lesser primates but even great-apes (hominidae) were still 15 million years away!  It was a time well before “cave men”.

I had a lot of trouble processing this as the data has to be severely stretched to pull the galaxies out. I’m glad I can see them though! 🙂 10 x 180s exposures (30 minutes) C9.25″ / Hyperstar / QHY12 CCD

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