M105, NGC 3379

M105 is a type E1 elliptical galaxy and the brightest member of the Leo I galaxy grouping, which includes M95 and M96 as well as various NGC and other galaxies. M105 was used as a photometric standard for surface brightness distributions due to the smoothness of its profile, but as is inevitable when any galaxy is studied too hard, it has been found not to be quite as smooth or quite as standard as originally suggested. The entire group is about 40 million light-years away, and there is a nice concise discussion, including other references, from the SEDS group. This image is a CCD color composite taken at the KPNO 0.9-meter telescope on February 5th 1996 (UT). Like all pictures of M105 (the galaxy at the right), it also includes NGC3384 (above and left of center), which is part of the Leo I group, and NGC3379 (bottom left), which is a more distant background galaxy.