The Triangulum Galaxy, M33, is the most distant object visible to the naked eye from under a dark sky. This spiral galaxy lies some 3 million light years away in the constellation Triangulum. It is part of the local group, of which the Milky Way, nearby Andromeda galaxy and some other 40 or so smaller galaxies are members.
The diameter of M33 is around 60000 light years and contains about 1/10th as many stars as our own Milky Way. Red emission nebulae are clearly visible in some of the spiral arms, four of which are so large, their own NGC designation are given. These regions also have intense rates star formation. The brightest of them, NGC604, is 40 times larger and over 6000 times more luminous than the Orion Nebula. If it were in place of the Orion Nebula in our galaxy, it would be the third brightest object in the sky, outshining Venus.
This is an update of an older image, but newly processed and with an additional 2.5hrs of Ha data with a QSI690-wsg. Original is posted
here
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