The NGC-2968 galaxy group is located in the extreme northwestern portion of the constellation of Leo, close to its border with Leo Minor. The dominant member of the group, NGC-2968 (center of image) is a
12.8 magnitude intermediate-type spiral galaxy. Just SW (down and right) from 2968 is NGC-2964, a 12th magnitude type SAB spiral galaxy. The faintest member of the group, 14th magnitude elliptical galaxy NGC-2970, is located to the NE (UP and right) from NGC-2968. This group of galaxies lie at a distance of
80 million light years from Earth. 2964 and 2968 were discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1785. NGC 2970 was discovered in 1828 by William Herschel's son John.
This image is a 1 hour integration of 6 minute exposures through the Celestron C-11 at f/2 using the HyperStar III imaging system and the ZWO ASI 071 MC CMOS color camera operating at -5 degrees below ambient temperature and binned 1 X 1. Guided, captured and combined using Maxim DL 5 Pro.
Post processed using PhotoShop CS2, Gradient XTerminator, StarShrink, Carboni's Astro Tools and NoiseWare.