M66, a spiral galaxy in Leo, seen from the NOT


From a night at the Nordic Optical Telescope when the clouds cleared as a surprise to the observers, giving me time to take a few snapshots.

30-second exposures in broad-band R,G,B filters gave this image. A focal reducer is used to obtain an image 10 arcminutes across.

Note the blue regions with young, hot stars, and the red emission nebulae. The coloured spikes around the bright star is due to diffraction and saturation effects.


Last updated 18-02-95