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The Great Spiral in Triangulum, M33
About this object
Messier 33 (NGC 598) is commonly known as the Triangulum Galaxy. Barely visible to the naked eye in dark skies, this nearby spiral is the third-largest galaxy in our Local Group, after the nearby Andromeda Galaxy (M 31) and our own Milky Way. It lies some 2.7 million light years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. I've shot images of this galaxy many time but not to this resolution and depth. This image is composed of 31.5hrs worth of data. The image was shot in my suburban backyard showing that its possible to get good data even from less than pristine skies. Hydrogen Alpha filtered data was mixed into the normal LRGB data to bring out the numerous red emission nebula within M33, a few amazingly huge. The Hydrogen Alpha image was exposed for 11hrs. It highlights the enormous amount of emission nebula within M33. You can see the Ha image here: M33 Hydrogen Alpha image.
Messier 33 (NGC 598) is commonly known as the Triangulum Galaxy. Barely visible to the naked eye in dark skies, this nearby spiral is the third-largest galaxy in our Local Group, after the nearby Andromeda Galaxy (M 31) and our own Milky Way. It lies some 2.7 million light years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. I've shot images of this galaxy many time but not to this resolution and depth. This image is composed of 31.5hrs worth of data. The image was shot in my suburban backyard showing that its possible to get good data even from less than pristine skies. Hydrogen Alpha filtered data was mixed into the normal LRGB data to bring out the numerous red emission nebula within M33, a few amazingly huge. The Hydrogen Alpha image was exposed for 11hrs. It highlights the enormous amount of emission nebula within M33. You can see the Ha image here: M33 Hydrogen Alpha image.
Image Details
- Optics : Stellarvue SVX 152 refractor @f8 1200mm FL
- Mount: Paramount MYT
- Camera: QSI 683
- Filters: Astrodon Gen II
- Exposure (min): LHaRGB: 360:660:300:290:280
- Camera/Mount Control: The Sky X, CCD Auto Pilot 5
- Guiding: SX Lodestar
- Processing: PixInsight 1.8, Starnet++
- Location: Stark Bayou Observatory, Ocean Springs, MS
- Sky: Typical SQM 19.6-20.0, Bortle 5, Suburban
- Date: Oct 2019
