M65
Messier 65 or M65 (also designated NGC 3623) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Leo. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 9.3 and its angular diameter is 8x1.5 arc-minutes. M65 lies at an estimated distance of 35 million light years. The Equinox 2000 coordinates are RA= 11h 18.9m, Dec= +13° 05´ which makes M65 best seen during the spring. The Messier Spring Star Chart shows the position of all Messier objects visible during that season.
The image above shows the cropped view of M65 through the ASA N12 Corrected Newtonian Astrograph (North is up to the right).
This spiral galaxy was discovered by Messier in 1780. Together with M66 and NGC 3628, the three galaxies are referred to as the Leo Triplet or the Trio in Leo. According to Stoyan et al. (2010), the distance of M65 is 32.8 million light years and its diameter is 94,000 light years.
For more information, see the Messier Catalog as well as specific entries for M65 in Wikipedia, SEDS and APOD.
Messier's Description of M65
March 1, 1780
`Nebula discovered in Leo: It is very faint and contains no star.'
Technical Details
- Objects: M65
- Other Names: NGC 3623
- Object Type: spiral galaxy
- Object Data: Apparent Magnitude = 9.3, Angular Size = 8x1.5 arc-minutes
- Object Position (Equinox 2000): RA= 11h 18.9m, Dec= +13° 05´
- Date/Time: 2012 Mar 22 at 04:58 UTC
- Location: Bifrost Astronomical Observatory, Portal, AZ
- Mount: Astro-Physics 1200GTO
- Telescope: ASA N12 Corrected Newtonian Astrograph
- Camera: Canon EOS 550D (Rebel T2i) (modified with a Baader UV/IR filter)
- Field of View: 71.0 x 47.4 arc-minutes at 0.82 arc-sec/pixel (web version: 4.6 arc-sec/pixel)
- Exposure: 10 x 480s, f/3.6, ISO 800
- File Name: M65-A01w.jpg
- Processing (Adobe Camera Raw): Flat Field Subtraction, Noise Reduction, White Balance
- Processing (Photoshop CS5): Average Images, Curves, Noise Reduction, High Pass Filter, Unsharp Mask
- Original Image Size: 3454 × 5179 pixels (17.9 MP); 11.5" x 17.3" @ 300 dpi
- Rights: Copyright 2012 by Fred Espenak. All Rights Reserved. See: Image Licensing.