Messier 33 (M33, Pinwheel Galaxy)

M33
All Images Copyright Steve Cannistra

Please click here for a larger version (45%)



Characteristics:
RA: 01h 33m 52s
Dec: +30 degrees 39' 29"
PA: plus 81 degrees

Description:
M33 is a beautiful, large, and yet relatively faint spiral galaxy member of our local group.   Although its magnitude is 7.0, it has low surface brightness due to its large extent (over 1 degree).  The most conspicuous characteristic of M33 is the large number of HII star forming regions it contains, seen as red regions of Ha emission within the spiral arms.  One of these HII regions, known as NGC 604, is seen at about 1 o'clock in the above image and extends for over 1,500 light years.  More information about M33 may be found in Rob Gendler's website.

Photographic Details:
Dates:  October 20, 2017
Scope:  Takahashi FSQ106 at f5 on the Takahashi NJP Mount
Autoguider:  SBIG ST-402 with 60mm guidescope, focal length 227mm
Camera:  Starlight XPress SX814 CCD camera at -20C, resulting in an image scale of 1.44 arcsec/pixel with the FSQ106
Filters:  Baader LRGB
Exposures:  Total exposure 8 hours
Post-processing:  Calibrated, aligned and stacked in Maxim, followed by DDP in ImagesPlus (IP).  Further processing in Photoshop CS (16 bit format)
Please note:  Graphics on this website may not be reproduced without author permission.
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