This trio of galaxies consists of M66 at the lower left, M65 at the lower right, and NGC 3628 near the top. All three are spiral galaxies but their different appearances are due to the different angles of tilt at which we see them. NGC 3628 is seen from earth edge-on, making the dust clouds around the perimeter of the spiral very apparent.

M65 and M66 were both discovered by French astronomer Charles Messier in 1780. NGC 3628 was discovered by British astronomer William Herschel four years later.

M65 is about 22 million light years from earth, while M66 is about 36 million light years away. NGC 3628 is believed to be about 35 million light years from earth.

This photo was taken on the night of April 17, 2009 from my backyard, with a Canon Digital Rebel XT mounted at the prime focus of my 8" f/4.9 newtonian reflector. It is a composite of 25 three minute exposures at ISO 800.

On the left side of this composite image about 1/4 of the way down from the top you can see a short streak of light, as if one of the stars was moving slowly during the 1.5 hours that I was tracking the galaxies. Actually this streak is not a star, it is an asteroid. This asteroid, named 118 Peitho, is about 42 kilometers (26 miles) in diameter, and it orbits the sun in an elliptical orbit within the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, at an average distance of about 227 million miles from the sun. On the night that I made this image 118 Peitho was about 150 million miles from Earth.