What did I find?

I was able to go out today for the first time since September 3rd. I found out I turned on my Sky Commander, so the battery was dead. No problems, I just pulled out my star chart and did fine.

I was able to see M33 off the triangulum pretty easy for a change. Just a small distance from M33, at 119x, I saw something that looked like a planetary nebulae (Starmaster 14.5" f4.5 - Pentax XL 14mm). It was in the same FOV.

My star charts are not real detailed. Can anybody tell me what it might have been.

Thanks in advance.

Michael

NGC 603 a small star cluster or HIP 7269 a multiple star or NGC 0523 a galaxy or disfuse nebula only things that are in that area you describe that might look like what you saw.

Michael,

Like many other galaxies, M33 has large, luminous emission nebulae in its spiral arms. Some of these are within reach of amateur telescopes, the most noticeable one being NGC604. It appears as a well defined nebulous patch in my 12.5-inch, and I suspect that this is the object you saw.

Having seen this one, you may look for other emission regions in M33 too. Later on you may want to search for similar nebulae in M101 and even M74. In the more distant galaxies the emission nebulae appear almost star-like. For me the observation guide of Kepple & Sanner has been a great help to spot and identify such features.

Inge S

Thanks guys. The picture for M33 and NGC 604 looks to be about right distance for what I saw. (ftp.seds.org). I could only make out the core of M33 and did not realize how big it really was. It looked like two distinct bodies to me.

Michael

There are images of M33 showing the various HII regions at http://www.ngcic.org/ngcicdb.asp and http://www.seds.org/messier/Pics/More/m33map.jpg

M101 also has numerous HII regions.

http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/M101text.html

Dave Mitsky