After successfully imaging M31 the Andromeda galaxy at new moon in early October, I was lucky that the next moon cycle in early November also provided good conditions and it seemed appropriate to just shift attention to Andromeda’s closest neighbour, which at this time of the year occupies a favourable part of the eastern sky in the early evening.  Only 15^o from M31, M33 AKA the Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies after Andromeda and the Milky Way.  Although very faint, in very good dark night sky conditions M33 can apparently be viewed with the naked eye. Along with our own Milky Way, this group travels together in the universe, as they are gravitationally bound.

Andromeda is eight times brighter and nearly four times larger than Triangulum, which for various reasons I have previously found difficult to image, despite its relative proximity to us.  On this occasion I was therefore very pleased to obtain a good data set over three nights that included 3-hours of 10-minute Ha exposures.  The result is definitely my best image yet of this tricky but attractive target, which in particular highlights the numerous red star-forming regions that abound throughout the galaxy’s arms.  I’ll almost certainly be back again another day but for now I am at last satisfied with the result.