Leo Triplet with Tidal Tail

Description:
Far from home, under a dark and clear sky, I had to drive 3 hours from my light polluted city, "Jeddah" to capture one of the most gorgeous targets in the sky, the Leo Triplet Galaxies with the beautiful tail of NGC3628 Galaxy. I wasn't sure if the night would be cloudy or not, I wasn't sure if it was a safe place or not, but I just packed my rig and drove to the place. Fortunately, I found a nice shepherd living there so I stayed with him, the sky was crystal clear, and the place was safe. I was able to collect 6 hours of LRGB data until the cloud passed by. But, since the sky was too dark and clear, I was able to bring out a lot of nice and breathtaking details of this beautiful region of the sky. I believe it's my best deep sky capture to date. As we can see in the image, there are three main Galaxies which are M66, M65, and NGC3628 with its 300,000 light-years long tidal tail. These Galaxies are about 35 million light year away from Earth in the constellation Leo.

Location:
Saudi Arabia, West of Saudi Arabia
Light pollution Bortle 2 (SQM 21.9)
Date: March 17th, 2023

Equipment:
- ASI2600MM Pro
- iOptron RC6
- Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
- X0.67 Reducer
- Antlia 36mm LRGB
- ESATTO ROBOTIC FOCUSER

Integration:
- L: 62X180" (3.1 hrs)
- RGB: 20X180" (1 hr) / Each

Total: 6.1 hours

Copyright: Bakry Abdullah