M33 – Pinwheel Galaxy
 

Messier 33 is a small spiral galaxy within the Local Group of galaxies, which also includes our own Milky Way. The galaxy is about 2.5 million light years away, and can be found in the Triangulum constellation. It measures about 40,000 light years across (about 40% the size of the Milky Way).

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M33
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Equipment
 TMB-130SS APO refractor at f/7 on a Losmandy G-11 equatorial mount
SBIG ST-8XM camera
SBIG CFW-10 filter wheel with Astrodon filters
Guiding: 60mm f/5 refractor and ST-402 camera
Imaging and autoguiding with MaxIm DL 4.57
Exposure
Luminance   1.75 hours (21 x 5 min.), unbinned, -30°C
Red   1.6 hours (19 x 5 min.) binned 2x2, -30°C
Green   1.75 hours (21 x 5 min.) binned 2x2, -30°C
Blue   1.75 hours (21 x 5 min.) binned 2x2, -30°C
Processing Dark and flat-frame processing in CCDStack
Channel sub-frames statistical-combined in CCDStack
Levels, curves and color-combined in Photoshop CS3
Date and Location Luminance: 2 & 3 January 2008
Montpelier, VA    N 37° 49' 12", W 77° 42' 06"