M33 Triangulum Galaxy

M33 Triangulum Galaxy
This wide-field view of the sky around the nearby galaxy Messier 33 was assembled from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The original photographs were taken over a period spanning more than 40 years, from 1949 until the early 1990s. As a result, some of the nearer stars in the picture have moved as a result of their significant proper motions. These show up as double dots — one red and one blue. The huge galaxy at the centre of the picture is tens or hundreds of thousands of times more distant than these nearby stars.
Name:Triangulum Galaxy
Designation:M33
Magnitude:5.7
Constellation:Triangulum
Object Type:Spiral Galaxy
Best Viewing:Fall/Winter
Distance:2.7 million LY
Surface Brightness:~23.0 mag/arcmin²
Viewing Difficulty:Moderate
Viewable By:Binoculars/Small Scope
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ESA Page:To Page
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Credit:NASA, ESA, Digitized Sky Survey 2 (Acknowledgement: D. De Martin)

Brightness notes: Integrated magnitude alone is misleading for galaxies. What really matters visually is surface brightness and angular size. So to make it more meaningful, I’ve added a “Surface Brightness value in the table. Surface brightness explains why M74 is hard and M82 pops.

M33 Triangulum Galaxy finder
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Full article coming