
The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 3 million light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC 598, and is sometimes informally referred to as the Pinwheel Galaxy, a nickname it shares withMessier 101. The Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, which includes the Milky Way, theAndromeda Galaxy and about 44 other smaller galaxies. It is one of the most distant permanent objects that can be viewed with the naked eye.
The Triangulum Galaxy is sometimes informally referred to as the “Pinwheel Galaxy” by some amateur astronomy references and in some public outreach websites. However, the SIMBAD Astronomical Database, a professional astronomy database that contains formal designations for astronomical objects, indicates that the name Pinwheel Galaxy is used to refer to Messier 101, and several other amateur astronomy resources and other public outreach websites also identify Messier 101 by that name.
Under exceptionally good viewing conditions with no light pollution, the Triangulum Galaxy can be seen with the naked eye. It is one of the most distant permanent objects that can be viewed without the aid of a telescope. Being a diffuse object, its visibility is strongly affected by small amounts of light pollution. It ranges from easily visible by direct vision in dark skies to a difficult averted vision object in rural or suburban skies. For this reason, Triangulum is one of the critical sky marks of the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale.
Imaging telescopes or lenses: Skywatcher Equinox 100 ED
Imaging cameras: Canon 1100Da
Mounts: Skywatcher HEQ5 PRO
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Skylux / ” LIDLSCOPE ” Achromat 70mm f/10
Guiding cameras: Skywatcher Synguider
Focal reducers: 0.85 Focal Reducer-Flattner(ED80) Skywatcher
Software: DeepSky Stacker 3.3.2, PS 2, Fitswork Photoshop
Resolution: 4290×2856
Dates: Sept. 29, 2014
Frames: 6×900″
Integration: 1.5 hours
Avg. Moon age: 4.52 days
Avg. Moon phase: 21.35%
RA center: 23.635 degrees
DEC center: 30.863 degrees
Pixel scale: 1.356 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: 95.561 degrees
Field radius: 0.971 degrees
Autor: Enrico, 03.10.2014