Northern part of the Triangulum Galaxy (M 33)

clic for 36% size 1364 x 894 (442 kB)

clic here for 60% size 2237 x 1490 (1300 kB)


About this Image

The Triangulum galaxy M 33 is another prominent member of the Local Group of galaxies. This face-on galaxy is small compared to its big apparent neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy M31, and to our Milky Way galaxy, but by this more of average size for spiral galaxies in the universe.

The distance to M 33 is approx. 3 million light years.
Many young blue stars are resolved in the galaxy.

A huge H II region containing ionized hydrogene has obtained a NGC number of its own: NGC 604. It is situated in the lower left part of this image, one of the largest H II regions known at all. it shows a diameter of approximately 1500 light-years and a spectrum similar to the Orion nebula M 42.
North is up.


Technical Details
Optics

16" cassegrain in secondary focus at f/10

Mount MK-100 GEM
Camera SBIG STL-11000M at -25C, internal filter wheel, AO-L
Filters Astronomik L
Date Oct 14, 2005.
Location Wildon/Austria
Sky Conditions mag 5.5 sky, 1.8" FWHM, temperature 5 C,
Exposure L = 120 min (20-minute sub-exposures)
all 1x1.
Processing Image aquisition in Maxim DL 4.65; Preprocessing in CCDStack; conversion with FitsLiberator;
Photoshop: curves, highpass, mild unsharp mask;