This galaxy was discovered by the Italian astronomer Hodierrna sometime before
1654. It was independently discovered by the French comet hunter Charles Messier in
1764 and labeled as M33 by him and was later included in the New General Catalog
as NGC 598. It is part of the Local Group of dozens of galaxies that has, as the largest, the Andromeda
Galaxy and our Milky Way at second largest. M33 ,the third largest at about 50,000 light-years wide, is about 1/2 the size of the Milky Way
and is about 3 million light-years from us. There are many hydrogen regions (seen as red)
that carry their own catalog numbers.

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Dates:
Nov 30, Dec 1,2,3, 2010
Location:
Ft. Griffin State Historic Site, Texas
Telescope:
TEC 140 at f/7 980mm focal length
Mount:
Astro-Physics Mach1 guided by the ST-10XE using the Remote Guide Head thru E-finder
Camera:
SBIG ST-10XE at prime focus with CFW8 and Astronomik HaLRGB filters
Camera Control:
CCDSoft
Exposures:
Ha - 242 mins ; 1x1
L - 258 mins; 1x1
Red - 100 mins; 2x2
Green - 100 mins; 2x2
Blue - 100 mins; 2x2
Exposure time:
Ha 4 hrs; L - 4 hrs 18mins; R - 1 hr 40 mins; G - 1 hr 40 mins; B - 1 hr 40 mins
Total Time: 13 hrs 18 mins
Processing:
Galaxy: L,R(80%Ha)G,B(20%Ha)
Background and Stars: L,R,G,B
CCDStack; Registar; Photoshop CS2