M33 - The Triangulum Galaxy

[jase]

Hi All,

I’m pleased to present M33 - The Triangulum Galaxy (http://www.cosmicphotos.com/gallery/image.php?fld_image_id=113&fld_album_id=12)

The spiral galaxy M33 (NGC598) resides in the constellation Triangulum. It is a member of the Local Group of galaxies which also includes our Milky Way galaxy. While small in comparison to its nearby neighbour M31 the Andromeda galaxy, it contains some very interesting regions within its spiral arm structure. Numerous reddish/pink HII regions (diffused emission nebula containing ionised Hydrogen) along with subtle blue hue clouds of young stars are present. NGC604 is one of the largest known HII regions with a diameter of nearly 1,500 light years. It is situated along the north-eastern part of the galaxy and is the visible bright red knot located in the lower right of the galaxy.

Compared to a vast majority of celestial objects in the universe, M33 exhibits a blue doppler shift when measured from our Solar System. This indicates the galaxy is approaching instead of receding. Measurements performed by NED have determined an approach rate of 179 +/-3 km/sec. When corrected for our motion around the Milky Way’s Galactic center, it is approaching our Galaxy at 24 km/sec. M33 resides approximately three million light years away.

Image details;
The image is an LRGB composite with a total exposure time of 3.5 hours (L:90min,R:40min,G:40min,B:40min). This object is low in the southern hemisphere skies. Easily fills the frame. blah blah <mental block> :rolleyes: can't think of much else at the moment. sorry

Processing;
It's been a while since I've done any galaxy processing and put bluntly, it shows! I reworked this a few times with little gain. More data would go along way, but I'll settle for what I've collected. I'll mix a few other techniques together sometime to see what works. I dropped quite a few methods I use for nebs.
Will just summarise the key points (you can always PM me if you want more details);
All images calibrated (dark/flat/bias), then blooms removed. All subs registered in Registar and combined in MaximDL (median). Deconvolve luminance in CCDSharp, then DDP in MaximDL. Manually stretched chrominance with levels and shadow/highlights. Cleaned the two images – removed dust donuts, hot pixels and performed some minor star shaping. Layered luminance with chrominance. Flattened. Duplicated layer and stretched duplicate then used multiply blend mode to improve contrast. Created high pass layer mask to further improve contrast. Noise reduction done via inverted layer mask. Seasoned to taste – lightly salted. Enjoy with a beverage of choice.

Thanks for looking.:)

Cheers

[davidpretorius]

oooooo jase, that is beautiful!

congratulations

[Ric]

Hi Jase, that is very nice indeed. It's all very crisp, clear and there is so much detail to look at. I had a good time studying that one.

an excellent effort

[seeker372011]

like it a lot!

[h0ughy]

looks like fireworks going off on a spinning wheel!!! fantastic effort love it!!

[Bobj]

Brilliant, mate. Have set it as my screen saver.:thumbsup:

[Bassnut]

Excellent Jase, nice colour balance, slight red halo on stars but that seems unavoidable. Overall cant see youve lost your touch on processing galaxies.

Cheers

[skeltz]

Lovely image jase heaps of detail,so much to see,looks like a job well done.

[jase]

Thanks David. Imaging the Local Group galaxies is a real treat.:D



Cheers Ric. Plenty of detail present with a couple of background galaxies as well.:)




Thanks Narayan. Appreciate it.:)




Cheers Houghy. Yeah, didn’t look at it from that perspective… cool.:thumbsup:




Thanks Bob. Pleased you liked it. This image is slightly reduced in size. The larger version makes a good desktop background.:D




Thanks Fred. :) Not use to imaging with NABG CCD chips. I welcome the QE they deliver, but dealing with blooms isn’t on my top ten image processing tasks I enjoy – small trade off.



Cheers Rob. :thumbsup: Pleased you like it.

Thank you all again for you comments.
All the best.

[RB]

Stunning image Jase, absolutely stunning.
The colours are breathtaking !!!!

[Garyh]

You have done a wonderful job of M33. :thumbsup:
I love the Ha areas and that there are so many resolved stars visible. So much detail!!
I found this a very hard galaxy to process and get the color balance looking right! you have done a excellent job of it!!
cheers

[jase]

Thanks Andrew. I've recently reprocessed the image, but could not top the output of the one uploaded to the website. Will keep trying as I've discovered a few new processing methods, but feel they are best suited for nebs. I'm also trying to avoid too many layers. Thanks again.:)



Cheers Gary. Indeed the HII knots make this a fascinating target. Perhaps I'll use a shorter focal length next time to capture the full extend of the spiral structure.:)

[Dr Nick]

Wow! So much better than my attemp... I will have to try again this year ;)

[2020BC]

Wow. Nice one.

[LT_Ng]

Hi Jase,

It is so beautiful, and I am sure you are very happy with it.

Wish one day I could capture a M33 of similar quality as yours.

LT

[jjjnettie]

:eyepop:
Beautiful

[jase]

Thanks Dr. Nick:)



Cheers Bill :thumbsup:



Thanks LT. Yes, happy with it for now, but can always find ways to get more out of the data. ;)


Thanks JJJ :thumbsup:

[janoskiss]

Wow! just spotted this one. Very Hubblesque image! Amazing.

[jase]

Cheers Steve. Pleased you like it. :D

[Moonman]

Stirring Stuff, Very lovely Image

Thanks

Mike

[little col]

that is one detailed crisp image , thanks for sharing it with us:thumbsup:
seems that getting the hang of layers and masking is an essential bit of knowledge for this processing lark of which i have yet to understand , but i am sure it will come with time.

[jase]

Thanks for the comments Mike. :)



Cheers Col.:thumbsup: It helps to know a bit about the tools of the trade, but seriously its harder to know when to use them. Certain functions can introduce noise into a routine so you need to be careful. Everyone has their own processing work flow which acts as a foundation. I typically adapt different techniques depend on what I see in the data and my goals. Start small, but have big intentions (don't get ahead of yourself). A thorough understanding of different linear/non-linear functions will assist. Its important to know how far you can push the data you've obtained without over doing it. I'm still learning and experience more failures than success. Just need to keep at it and you'll get there.

[gaa_ian]

Awesome Image, can we expect to see this one on APOD ?
It is certainly worthy of posting there, great job Jase !