The Leo triplet

The Leo Triplet . Commonly named the M66 group in the constellation of Leo the Lion . It lies at a distance of about 30 million light years . This image was taken using an Atik 383L mono CCD camera, PHD auto guiding and a 4 inch F7 refractor with a focal reducer making it F 6.3. I captured ten minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them making total exposure times of sixty minutes for each colour filter: