Astronomy received 39 entries for its 2010 Astroimging Contest in the Deep-sky category, with objects from various catalogs. The winning entry (at right) is by Ruben Kier of Orange, Connecticut. The Leo Trio is a threesome of galaxies 35 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Leo the Lion. M65 sits at the lower left of this image. It has tight spiral arms similar to our Milky Way. M66, at the upper left, has had its spiral arms distorted, probably due to gravitational interaction with M65. On the right, NGC 3828 represents an edge-on spiral galaxy. It features a broad band of interstellar dust that obscures the central disk. For an inhabitant of any of these systems, the view of the other galaxies would be spectacular. Each would cover as much of the sky as one of our constellations.
Subscribers have access to the reamining 38 official contest entries.
