Date: Early Spring in 2012; South of Berlin Scope: 7" TMB Apo f/8 TMB Apo + 9" TMB folded Apo CCD: 7" Apo: Sbig 4020: 660 Min luminance (1x1 bin); 140 min R, 160 min G, 160 min B (2x2 bin). CCD: Spring 2007; 9" folded Apo: SXV M25C 3 hours (color-data) Software: AstroArt4, Maxim DL, CCD Stack Processing: Collaborational processing: Dietmar and Torsten. software used: PS CS5, Registax, Pix IS.

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One shot Color Image SXVF M25C (2007)

This majestic spiral galaxy, which we view exactly from the edge, is staged in an adequate constellation (Lion), suiting the huge size of ngc 3628. The longitudinal diamter is barely about 1/4 of the apparent size of the moon. That makes her pretty large! This said, and knowing that ngc 3628 shines at 9m5 visually, which is pretty bright for a galaxy that is roughly 35 Mio ligh-years away from our place, one still cannot understand, why Mr. Messier did not mention the galaxy in his famous catalogue, though he did so with the neighbouring very famous ones (M65,66), only half a moon away from the location.

BTW: These three are supposed to interact by gravitational means. There is evidence for such interaction, as you can find a faint so called "tidal trail" of stars to the left. These represent stars, that have been distracted by gravitational force of M65, 66. Like in so many cases, it was Wilhelm Herschel who discovered NGC3628 in 1784.

Should you be interested in a comparison with an older image taken with a one shot color CCD from Starlight Xpress SXVF M25C then please click the line "One shot color Image SXVF M25C (2007)" above.