04/07/2024- The Leo Triplet – M65, M66, and NGC 3628

Nice clear night. A little cool, but still a nice clear Moonless night. I was setting up more to make sure everything was ready for the Solar Eclipse, but decided to have a quick go and capturing some light since it was such a nice night.
I uncovered the scope late in the afternoon. After dark I ran the Ekos Focus routine and then the Ekos Polar Alignment routine.

Primary (Imaging)	Secondary (Guiding)
Scope: SVBONY SV503 102ED Reducer/Flattener: SVBONY SV193 0.8 FR/FF Filter: None Camera: ZWO ASI294 MC Pro, Cooled to -10 C Focuser: ZWO EAF Mount: Sky Watcher EQ6-R Pro	Scope: SVBONY SV106 60mm Guide Scope Camera: Orion Star Shooter Autoguider (OSSAG)
Telescope Control, Image Acquisition, and Image Processing Software
Equipment Control and Imaging Software: KStars/Ekos connecting to INDI Server on a Raspberry Pi Stacking and Processing Software: Siril astronomical image processing tool

The Leo Triplet is a group of galaxies which includes Messier 65, Messier 66, and NGC 3628. The Leo Triplet is about 35 million light years away and is located in the constellation of Leo.

This is a stack of 18 x 300 second exposures at 121 gain, 30 offset, and bin 2×2. The image was stacked, cropped, and processed using Sirilic and Siril. Had a lot of issues with airplanes and satellites early in the night. The first five frames were full of them, I counted 4 in one frame. The satellites and airplanes either stacked out or got cropped out.

Ended up with a nice image for only 1 1/2 hours of exposures and about 10 minutes fiddling with it in Siril. Messier 65 (M65) is to the top left, Messier (M66) is to the bottom left, and NGC 3628 (some times called the Hamburger Galaxy) is to the right.