Three galaxies in one view! How to locate and observe the amazing Leo Triplet, including its famous Hamburger

The Leo Triplet has to be one of the most mesmerising celestial targets that can fit in a single telescope field of view.

It's located about 30 million lightyears from Earth in the Leo constellation that gives this iconic galaxy grouping its nickname.

Consisting of 3 beautiful galaxies M66 and M65 (from the Messier Catalogue) and NGC 3628, each member of the Leo Triplet is gravitationally bound to one another.

This means that when you're observing it, you are observing a connected system of galaxies.

And each member is a spiral galaxy, although it may not initially appear as though this is the case.

The Leo Triplet galaxies

Each galaxy of the Leo Triplet looks as though it belongs in a different galactic category from its neighbour, but this is because they are all tilted at different angles from our perspective on Earth.

NGC 3628

NGC 3628 is the thin-looking galaxy in the Leo Triplet and is the faintest too, appearing edge-on through Earth-based telescopes.

While this edge-on view hides the galaxy’s spiral structure from us, what is visible is the thick, dark dust lanes cutting through the galactic plane and hot young stars glowing bright blue.

This a spiral galaxy sports a broad, dark central dust lane that can be seen through large telescopes on nights of very good seeing.

One other thing to note in the case of NGC 3628 is a warped and bulged appearance: likely a result of gravitational interactions between the 3 galaxies.

NGC 3628’s appearance has earned it the nickname ‘the Hamburger Galaxy’ among astronomers.

M66

Galaxy M66, the lowest of the two face-on galaxies, is a barred spiral galaxy and the brightest of the Leo Triplet, lying 35 million lightyears away.

In fact, galaxy M66's barred spiral galaxy’s arms are among the brightest of any galaxy you'll see.

You can even (just about) see galaxy M66 through binoculars on a dark, Moon-free night, shining as it does at mag. +8.9, but look through a telescope and you'll see M66's spiral arms.

M66 is slightly asymmetrical, and this is a result of the gravitational tug-of-war playing out between the 3 galaxies.

M65

M65 shines at a magnitude of +10.3, and is a spiral galaxy located lightyears away.

High magnifications will show you M65's tight spiral arms and bright galactic centre. It has a diameter of about 90,000 lightyears.

M65 was also the site of a recent supernova. Supernova 2013am was observed on 21 March 2013 by M Sugano from Kakogawa, Japan, who reported a bright 'new star' with a magnitude of +15.6.

How to find the Leo Triplet

The Leo Triplet is a great target for springtime Galaxy Season and is fairly easy to find in the springtime night sky because it lies within one of the most prominent constellations.

It can be located using the Sickle asterism.

Find the Sickle - or backwards question mark - in Leo by looking to the southwest on a springtime evening.

You can use a star chart or astronomy app to help you.

Bottom of the Sickle is bright star Regulus.

Scan left from Regulus until you reach star Denebola, the star that marks Leo the lion's tail.

The Leo Triplet can be found about a quarter of the distance from Denebola to Regulus.

Pictures of the Leo Triplet

Below is a selection of images captured by BBC Sky at Night Magazine readers and astrophotographers from across the globe.

If you’re interested in learning more about astrophotography, read our expert astrophotography guides or find out how to fine-tune your captures with image processing.

And don’t forget to send us your images. You can also share them with us via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.