NGC 604: Emission Nebula in M33

Click on image for larger version.


 Discovered by William Herschel when the United States was still in its infancy. This HUGE nebula is actually in the galaxy M33. It has a diameter of 1500 light years and contains approximately 200 stars. Many of these stars have a mass several times that of our sun. M33 is about 3 million light years away from Earth. The bottom image shows the full frame- though it only represents a small fraction of the galaxy M33.

Equipment

20in RC Optical Systems telescope Operating at f/8.4
Paramount ME Robotic Telescope Mount
SBIG ST10XME CCD camera with color filter wheel

L R G B color production was used to create this image.

Luminance = 60 minutes binned 1x1
 Red = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Green = 20 minutes binned 2x2
 Blue = 20 minutes binned 2x2
  • This image was enlarged by about 140% compared to the original (intrinsic) resolution.
  • Two iterations of L-R deconvolution (sharpening) algorithm using CCDsharp were applied to the luminance image.

    • Minimum credit line: Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF

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    Updated: 9/23/2003