Another galaxy, another Messier object

M33 floating in space

This is M33, the “Triangulum Galaxy”.

Very very roughly, given all the uncertainties about the size of your screen and how close you are, this view is about not too far from naked eye size.

Here’s an image of the moon with the same equipment, same magnification:

The Moon

About the view you would get through binoculars.

The moon is half a degree wide; M33 is a little over one degree, but that includes dim reaches that don’t show in the  photograph above.

I posted a picture of the Andromeda galaxy a few days ago at the same scale.  It is much larger, about three degrees wide.  (Most of the astrographs I post are with the same tiny 61mm telescope and camera, so the scale for all of them is similar. )

The sky goes on forever, and it is littered  with amazing giant things, only slightly hidden from us.

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