NGC 3628 is an unbarred spiral galaxy about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. It has an approximately 300,000 light-years long tidal tail. NGC 3628 along with M65 and M66 form the famous Leo Triplet, a small group of galaxies. Its most conspicuous feature is the broad and obscuring band of dust located along the outer edge of its spiral arms, effectively transecting the galaxy to our view.

m65_m66_ngc3628mc01

Imaged by Martin Crow.

80mm Equinox ED Refractor @ f6 with Canon 400D, 8 x 60s

Neil-Webster-leotriplet

Altair Astro AO EQ6-R, ZWO ASI294MC Pro

Total exposure ~4hrs
St Mary’s Platt, Kent.

LeoTripletKevinLangford

Image by Kevin Langford