This the result of what initially started as a test for my new image train (Omegon 571M + ZWO filter wheel) and quickly became a full fledged effort as i realized how interesting the target was. Unfortunately i started it too late as M33 was already very high up in the sky early after dusk. I would have probably doubled the exposure time to reduce the noise and get the faintest details. Oh well, that's another project for next year
NGC 604 and the brightest HII regions
One of the most interesting details of the image is NGC 604, a massive (maybe the largest?) HII region which shines 6300 times more than the Orion nebula. Here the details in HOO and a "fake" hubble palette:
Personally from now on i will be calling NGC604 "the haunting face" - once you see it you can't unseen it ever again. Very interesting blue regions inside left "eye" which are most likely star clusters. Here is the Hubble version for comparison:
The HII Outburst - NGC 595This is a closeup of the massive Hydrogen outburst in the top right corner of the image, the HOOLRGB version highlight the complicate intersection with galactic dust while the Hubble palette version shows how extended the HII region is.
A planetary bubblefestThe area is filled with planetary nebulas within and outside the main galactic circle, this area in particular is rich of planetary nebulas shining in both HA and OIII
In general there are an exceptional number of features in this image, M33 is just an amazing target with so much yet to discover. For sure i had a lot of fun working on it and i hope you will enjoy it!
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