Enchanted Skies

Galaxies

M33 - The Triangulum Galaxy (imaged from 'Upham' N.M.)

M33 - The Triangulum Galaxy Map of the Region near M33

 

Object Information                                            Imaging Details

The Triangulum Galaxy gets its name from its host constellation. In a very dark sky, the Sc spiral galaxy is visible to individuals with an extremely keen eye (that doesn't include me). For those who can see it, M33 is the most distant object observable with the naked eye at 2.78 million light-years (for comparison, the Andromeda Galaxy is 2.52 million light-years distant). M33 may be a large satellite galaxy to the much larger Andromeda Galaxy. The view of one of the galaxies from the other must be breathtaking.

M33 is easily viewed with any telescope (or even with binoculars; however, seeing detail such as the galaxy's arms requires a telescope of at least 12 inches. It's a splendid object to observe through a 20" obsession.

I imaged this object at ASLC's 'Upham' dark sky site (about 35 miles North of Las Cruces).

Clicking the above image will bring up a higher resolution image.

Telescope:
Celestron NexStar GPS11
Camera:
Canon 300D (type 1 modified)
Filter(s):
 
Misc. Optics:
HyperStar 3, Baader 6nm Ha filter
Exposures:

33 x 150 seconds @ ISO 800 for color, 22 x 3 minutes @ ISO 800 for Ha

Guiding:
Through Orion ED80 piggybacked atop C11. Autoguiding was done with GuideDog and a ToUCam.
Processing:
Images were aligned and stacked in Nebulosity. Ha (colorized red channel from rgb) and Color stacks combined in Photoshop CS. Curves, levels and sharpening adjustments were done with Photoshop CS. Noise reduction was performed with Noise Ninja.

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Enchanted Skies - Astrophotography by Rich Richins (all images copyright, Rich Richins)