Leo’s Triplet Base (M66, M65 - Leo) - Two galaxies make it a pair

Continuing my run on the galaxies with the C8 EHD (f10, no reducer, no binning, no crop). As always, RA and Dec aligned to X and Y.

Only 4h30hrs integration time. I still had an extra 1h30, but somehow there was something wrong with the background. Although I had the corresponding flats, some strange artefacts/gradient kept on appearing in the background. Not sure what’s causing it. Didn’t find the cause after a couple of investigations, so decided to leave this 1h30 out, before I find out what’s really wrong with it.

Processed similar like the previous two galaxies with my C8 EGD (M101, M81), splitting luminance, Rob and starts. Luminance processed for details, rgb for colours, stars separate. Background still seems a bit grainy (I might have to re-work from the noise reduction). Stars are perhaps a bit dimmed/reduced too much.

Happy to hear your thoughts ….

M66, also known as NGC 3627 and ARP 16, is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the southern, equatorial half of Leo. This galaxy is a member of a small group of galaxies that includes M65 and NGC 3628, known as the Leo Triplet or the M66 Group. It lies 31 million light-years away and is about 95 thousand light-years across with striking dust lanes and bright star clusters along sweeping spiral arms. As of 2018, five supernovae have been observed in M66

Messier 65 (also known as NGC 3623) is an intermediate spiral galaxy about 35 million light-years away in the constellationLeo. The galaxy is low in dust and gas, and there is little star formation in it, although there has been some relatively recently in the arms. The ratio of old stars to new stars is correspondingly quite high.
To the eye, M65's disk appears slightly warped, and its relatively recent burst of star formation is also suggestive of some external disturbance. Rots (1978) suggests that the two other galaxies in the Leo Triplet interacted with each other about 800 million years ago. Recent research by Zhiyu Duan suggests that M65 may also have interacted, though much less strongly. He also notes that M65 may have a central bar—it is difficult to tell because the galaxy is seen from an oblique angle—a feature which is suggestive of tidal disruption.

M65, M66
C8, UVIR, ASI2600MC, EQ6-R Pro
180s 90x = 4h30
20230227-28

Any constructive guidance is welcome .. always looking how I can still improve on this