The Triangulum Galaxy ... Messier 33



The Triangulum Galaxy
This is a 2 hour 5 min exposure ...
Messier 33, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Triangulum, that's located at a distance of approximately 2.81 million light-years. It's the third largest member of the Local Group, which also includes our Milky Way galaxy, and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). It contains about 40 billion stars as compared to the Andromeda galaxy with a trillion stars and our own Milky Way's 250 billion. The galaxy is high overhead in early October at 1am.

Setting Up
I took this image November 17, 2019. It is composed of 25 subframes of 5 minutes each and then stacked to produce the final image. I used the 3.1" ED80T refractor telescope with no filters. The sky was dark with no lunar interference. Clouds began to encroach after 2 hours of exposing.

The Techy Stuff:
Telescope: Orion ED80T CF Triplet Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Telescope Mount: AVX
Camera: Altair Hypercam 294c Pro Tec One-Shot-Color camera
Sensor Temperature: -10°C (-14°F)
Guiding: Altair GPCAMv2 AR0130 MONO Guide Camera
Guide Scope: Altair MG60 mini guide scope
Total sub-frames: 25
12 Dark frames
12 Bias frames
40 Flat frames

Software Used:
Mount control: Celestron PWI
Guiding: PHD2
Capture: SharpCap Pro (64 bit V 3.2.6054)
Stacking: DeepSkyStacker v4.22

Post Processing:
PixInsight v1.8.8
PhotoShop CC
Outside temperature 48F° (8.9°C), Dewpoint 47° (8.3°C)
Bortle Light Pollution zone: 4.5 (Barely can see the Milky Way)
Sky Condition: 9 [scale of 0 (cloudy) to 10 (clear)]
Location: My Backyard, Savannah, GA


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