Galaxies are coming.....

Got a couple of new targets last night. They need work though, both on the scope end and in processing.
First:

M65 (Top), M66 (Bottom) and NGC 3628 (Left)

I took this whilst waiting for the next target to rise out of the trees. The three galaxies lie between 35 and 36 million light years away in the constellation of Leo, which earns them the name 'the Leo Triplet'. This image is made from 35 of the best from 60 frames of 45 seconds each, unguided through the TS Optics 6" f/4 Newtonian. Whilst it's not much of a picture, these galaxies do represent my most distant targets yet, so there's an element of excitement at having caught anything at all!

Then, last night's main target:

M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy

Strictly speaking this is actually a pair of galaxies, M51 on the right and NGC 5194 is the smaller disc on the left. In this rather beautiful gravitational interaction, M51 is stripping the stars away from it's smaller companion. Eventually, the larger will consume the little one, the two merging together to form a single larger galaxy. The system is of a similar size to our own galaxy, and indeed the Milky Way also faces a devastating collision one day, with our nearest large neighbour, the Andromeda Galaxy. However, this will not take place for 5-10 billion years yet! The image is comprised of 38 frames from a run of 60, at 45 seconds each. There have also been 57 dark frames subtracted from the image.