101 Must-See Cosmic Objects: M65 and M66

A twin treat, M65 (top right) and M66 (bottom right) in Leo are arguably the most dynamic galaxy pair in the northern night sky, next to M81 and M82 in Ursa Major. Under a dark sky, binoculars will show them as two roughly magnitude 9 glows 20′ apart. Together with the dimmer edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3628 (35′ to the northeast), they form the famed Leo Triplet of galaxies. All lie about 35 million light-years distant, in the Leo Spur — a little gathering of galaxies between the Local Grou