M33 the Triangulum Galaxy is a spectacular face-on spiral galaxy seen in the northern constellation Triangulum. It’s also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy or simply the Triangulum Galaxy.
M33 is the third biggest galaxy in the Local Group of galaxies after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and our own Milky Way. With a diameter of nearly 50,000 light-years, M33 is estimated to be a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy located about 3 million light-years from the Milky Way.
This vivid image displays M33’s blue star clusters and pinkish star formation regions throughout the galaxy’s loosely bound spiral arms, as seen from Earth.
The Triangulum Galaxy is best observed through very large binoculars or modest magnification telescopes. Astrophotographers like it because its spiral arms and brighter H II areas can be captured with their telescope and camera.
The image above represents 6.5 hours of data collected using an Explore Scientific 127CF triplet refractor, QHY268M camera and Optolong Ha-L-R-G-B filters. Processing was performed in PixInsight.
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