BARRED SPIRAL GALAXY M96 (NGC 3368)

M96 is part of the M96 Group of Galaxies, also known as Leo 1.  It is the bright spiral galaxy in the upper right of this image. (North is approximately down instead of the usual up).

Numerous other galaxies are present in this image, most notably M95 in the upper left, and M105, NGC 3371, and NGC 3389 in the lower left.  If you look carefully you can see a faint elliptical galaxy right next to the upper left of M96; it is PGC 83335.  Also, the bright reddish spot on the outer right spiral arm, just below the nucleus of M96, is actually another edge-on spiral galaxy.  In fact many of the objects that appear to be stars in this image are galaxies.

(click on image for larger size):

This image was taken on 2/16/07 with a Williams Optics Zenithstar 105mm refractor at f/5.6, and an SBIG ST-10XME CCD camera.  Integration times were 12x5min for each filter (Red, Green, and Blue).  Luminance data was not obtained.