December 2003 Astrophotos

Autumn is quickly fading, and so is the opportunity to photograph two gems that I swore I would get to, galaxies M31 and M33.  I've managed to get so-so photos of both, but I know I can do better.  Here are the first attempts.

The Triangulum Galaxy, aka M33, is a beautiful but very faint type Sc galaxy in the constellation triangulum.  It shines at a magnitude of 5.7, but this is somewhat deceptive as it does not have a particularly bright core like that of the andromeda galaxy.  One of the things that makes this galaxy so interesting is the multitude of bright hydrogen alpha emission nebula which can be resolved from a dark sky location and show up brilliantly on long exposure photographs.  The above photograph is a composite of a single luminance and a single RGB exposure shot on hypered tech pan and supra 400 respectively.  The tech pan shot was 150 minutes long shot at f/10 with the 12" lx200 on December 19th (clouds cut it short, I had hoped for three hours).  The RGB shot (90min, 12"lx200) was taken a month earlier but was misframed, which is why the photo changes from black and white to color in the upper left hand corner.  I'll fix this shot in the near future with a new RGB.

Here's some works in progress: The horsehead and flame nebulas, the rosette nebula and M1, the crab nebula.