M66 (left) and M65 in Leo are a famous Galaxy pair. At a distance of about 23 lightyears these galaxies are thought to be the nearest members of the virgo galaxy cloud. The bright star near M66 (with the spikes) makes this galaxy easy to find, but through the light-polution of my hometown The Hague, it's really hard to spot it visually with my 6" Newtonian. M65 is even more difficult to distinguish. My first eye-contact with M65 happended in a rural area in the very north of the Netherlands.

EXPOSURE DATA: TAL 150 PM 150mm f/5 Newtonian telescope on a Vixen SP equatorial mount; Starlight Xpress MX5-C CCD camera; mosaic of 30 (left) and  40 (right) unguided exposures of 60s; April 27, 2005 The Hague.