This image of the Triangulum Galaxy (M33) is composed of 232 individual frames taken over the last couple of weeks from Bracken Observatory here in Pleasant Hill. It’s the third largest galaxy in our local group, after Andromeda and the Milky Way. If you have super clear skies, and good vision, you might just barely be able to make this out with the naked eye. At 2.7 million light years away, it is, in fact, the most distant object that can be seen without the aid of a telescope.
The nucleus of the galaxy holds an abundance of ionized hydrogen, which is a usually an indicator of star formation. Unlike most other large galaxies there is no evidence of a supermassive black hole in the center of this one. M33 is chock-full of star forming regions; clouds of mostly hydrogen which show up in this image as reddish-pink blotches. In fact, the rate of star formation in M33 is far higher than in our largest neighbor, Andromeda.
