SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Hal Heaton
Location of Photo:
Skygems Namibia
Date/Time of photo:
2024 November 25-30
Equipment:
Unguided Takahashi FSQ-106ED refractor (f/5), 104 mm aperture; 2x2 binned Moravian C3-61000 back-illuminated CMOS camera; Baader R, G, B, H-alpha filters; 300 sec exposures
Description:
Once thought to be an "island universe," the Triangulum Galaxy (M33) is the third-largest member of the Local Group behind Andromeda (M31) and the Milky Way. Located about 2.6 million light-years away, its spiral-shaped disk is about half the size of the Milky Way; several blue star clusters and reddish regions of ionized hydrogen can be seen where stars are forming rapidly. The galaxy’s morphology shows few signs of interactions with other nearby galaxies, and unlike most large spiral galaxies, it does not appear to host a supermassive black hole in its center. Since it is likely that M33 is bound gravitationally to Andromeda, and both galaxies are moving toward our own, it could participate in the predicted collision between Andromeda and the Milky Way more than 4 billion years from now.
