The Tirangulum Galaxy

Narrowband data included

Standard broadband data only

Image Details:

The M33 Galaxy is the second-largest galaxy visible to Northern Hemisphere imagers (behind Andromeda, and not counting the Milky Way) and is best visible in Autumn. This is also almost the farthest object visible to the naked eye at a distance of 3 million lightyears, appearing as a very faint smudge under dark skies, though many have also seen the M81 galaxy naked eye which is more than 3 times further away.

This galaxy is smaller than our Milky Way and contains about 40 billion stars (compared to our estimated 100 billion) . M33 is seemingly missing a supermassive black hole at its center, though it does still contain black holes, just ones of lower than expected mass.

The two images shown above show the galaxy in both broadband and including narrowband. One shows only true color visible light where the magenta star-forming regions are faintly visible amongst the blue spiral arms. The other (top image) shows the inclusion of narrowband Hydrogen and Oxygen emission lines which appear as magenta and teal, respectively. These show better contrast on the aforementioned star-forming regions. Most notably, NGC 604 (the bright nebula below and left of the galactic core) is incredibly bright, and would outshine Venus in our sky if it was at the same distance as the Orion Nebula (~1,400 lightyears).

Equipment:

  • Celestron C8 + Reducer (1280mm Focal Length, F/6.3)

  • ZWO ASI1600MM-P, ZWO Filters

  • ZWO AM5N Mount

  • Autoguiding: ZWO Off-Axis Guider + QHY178M

Exposures:

  • Luminance: 124 x 180” (6h 12m total)

  • Red, Green, Blue: 43, 40, 41 x 180” (6h 12m total)

  • Hydrogen-Alpha 7nm: x 180” (11h 3m total)

  • Oxygen-III 7nm: x 180” (15h 27m total)

Misc Details:

  • Capture Software: N.I.N.A. (capture), PHD2 (guiding), Pegasus Powerbox (dew heater control, power management)

  • Processing Software: PixInsight

  • Taken from: Okie-Tex Star Part 2024, Bortle Class 1 skies (Broadband), Wichita, KS, Bortle Class 5 skies (Narrowband)

  • Capture Dates: 1-4 October, 2024, 10, 20-23 November, 2024

Annotation