The Triangulum Galaxy
M33 • Spiral galaxy • Triangulum • 2.73 million light-years from Earth
🔭
Askar 130PHQ
📷
ZWO 2600MC Pro
🌃
Bortle 8
⏱️
18 hours
🗓️
November 2024
Overview
The Triangulum Galaxy, also known as M33, is the third largest galaxy in the Local Group, after the Andromeda Galaxy and our own Milky Way. Located around 2.73 million light years from Earth, it contains an estimated 40 billion stars.
Although relatively nearby in cosmic terms, the Triangulum Galaxy has very low surface brightness. This makes it a challenging target for astrophotography, particularly from light-polluted urban skies. My main M33 photograph combines 18 hours with the Askar 130PHQ from Bristol. Explore NGC 604 and the galaxy’s other labelled features in the field viewer, then compare it with my Seestar S50 view of the Triangulum Galaxy. For the thinking behind my broadband setup, see my guide to choosing filters for an OSC camera.
Background
This was a fairly straight-forward imaging project, for once! Most galaxies are so far away that they appear as little more than tiny dots in the sky, but this particular one is a relatively close-by neighbour. This means that it’s large enough in the sky that my Askar 130PHQ‘s focal length of 1000mm is well-suited for framing.
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Explore the field
Objects in this field 15 objects
15 objects
No matching objects.
- Triangulum GalaxyM 33
- GalaxyAlso catalogued as NGC 598
- NGC 604
- HII region
- NGC 595
- HII region
- NGC 592
- Stellar association
- NGC 588
- HII region
- IC 136
- Stellar association
- IC 131
- HII region
- Maa 2
- Planetary nebulaAlso catalogued as PN G133.7-31.4
- IC 137
- Stellar association
- IC 140
- Stellar association
- IC 142
- HII region
- IC 132
- HII region
- IC 135
- HII region
- IC 133
- HII region
- IC 143
- HII region
About the labels and credits
Positions and outlines are calculated from a plate solution of this photograph. Outlines are catalogue guides and may not follow every visible filament. Additional catalogue objects may be faint or indistinct in this exposure.
Plate solving and annotation data: SkySolver, by Dominik Sito. Stars: Gaia DR3 and Hipparcos (ESA). Deep-sky data: OpenNGC © Mattia Verga (CC BY-SA 4.0), SIMBAD and VizieR (CDS). Names: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and IAU WGSN. Catalogue overlay adaptations, including styling and selected display names, are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph © Lee Pullen.
Science
The most prominent red area is called NGC 604 (find it in Explore the field). This is a stellar nursery; like the Triangulum Galaxy’s version of our own Orion Nebula, but far larger, spanning about 1500 light-years!
Imaging details
- Total exposure
- 18 hours
- Dates captured
- 11 – 22 November 2024
- Location and sky
- Bristol, UK (Bortle 8)
Equipment and software
- Telescope
- Askar 130PHQ Flatfield Astrograph
- Camera
- ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro
- Mount
- Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
- Guiding
- WO 50mm + ZWO ASI 120MM Mini
- Control
- ASIAIR Plus
- Software
- PixInsight, Lightroom
- Image by
- Lee Pullen
Exposure by filter
Optolong L-Quad Enhance
- Channels
- RGB
- Subframes
- 216 × 5 minutes
- Integration
- 18 hours
View subframe and stack
Single subframe and integrated stack, both with a simple stretch applied.
Kit list
This is the equipment I used to capture the image.
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Telescope: Askar 130PHQ
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Camera: ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro
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Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
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Guidescope: William Optics 50mm with ROTO Lock
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Guidecam: ZWO ASI 120MM Mini
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Control: ASIAIR Plus
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Filter: Optolong L-Quad Enhance
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Processing walkthrough
The Triangulum Galaxy is a broadband target, so I just used an Optolong L-Quad Enhance filter to help with light pollution. I find that particular filter also brings out red Hα regions, of which there are quite a few in the galaxy’s spiral arms. I boosted the saturation of the red a little more during processing, to help those areas pop.
See below for a full video walkthrough of how I processed the image.
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