The Triangulum Galaxy - M33
Face on Spiral in Triangulum - with 10" f/3.9 Astrograph
Uploaded 10/25/16

This image is my deepest yet on this object, over 2.5 hours of exposure time with the fast f/3.9 optics of my 10" Orion Astrograph produced this moderately wide field view of the central region of this face on spiral galaxy. To produce this image, 1h of LRGB data was taken, and then the next night 1.5 hours of Halpha data with a very narrow band 3nm Halpha filter. Then I subtracted the blue data from the Halpha data to produce an image with only emission regions and very little continuum. This was then added to the LRGB data in the following ratios: 100% in the Red channel, 20% in the Blue channel, and 3% in the Green channel to align with the spectral band of Halpha - H-alpha, H-beta and H-gamma in the correct proportions. This yields the correct pink color for the nebula overall.
Select an image size for a larger view: 1600 x 1200
Instrument: 10" f/3.9 Orion Astrograph Newtonian with Baader MPCC Mount: Astrophysics 1200 QMD CCD Camera: SBIG 10XME NABG with Enhanced Water Cooling Guider: Meade DSI Pro w/80mm piggyback refractor Exposure: Ha + LRGB = 90:50:10:10:10 AstroDon RGB Combine Ratio: 1: 1.05: 1.2 Location: Payson, Arizona, Elevation: 5150 ft. Sky: Seeing FWHM = 3 arcsec , Transparency 8/10 Outside Temperature: 45 F CCD Temperature: -20 C Image Processing Tools: Maxim DL6: Calibration, deblooming (Starizona Debloomer), aligning, stacking PixInsight: Curves, Deconvolution Photoshop CS2: Curves, Color Correction, Gradient removal (Grad Xterminator), Cleanup HOME GALAXIES EMISSION NEBS REFLECTION NEBS COMETS GLOBULARS OPEN CLUST PLANETARIES LINKS