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Community photo entitled Triangulum Galaxy M33, 2878 million ly, second closest to Milky Way by Andy Dungan on 10/17/2026 at Near Cotopaxi, Colorado USA

Triangulum Galaxy M33, 2878 million ly, second closest to Milky Way

On 10/17/2026 01:00 am by Andy Dungan | Website | Near Cotopaxi, Colorado USA

This was the first time I photographed Triangulum with my new Askar 120APO that has a focal length of 840mm (Equivalent to 1260mm when used with an aps-c camera). It was exciting to see how much more detail I could capture. Using an Ha filter along with the Pixel Math formulas discussed above truly allowed we to show the various structures within the galaxy that have Ha within them. It gives you some idea what you might see if you were on a planet in Triangulum (second closest galaxy to Earth) taking pics of the Milky Way!

Pics were taken between Oct 17 & 21.

Askar 120apo@840f7.5, 2600MM Pro g100. [10.9hrs total] R:50x300s G:50x300s B:31x300s
[6.25hrs total] Ha:75x300s +darks/biases/flats.
AM5/ASIair+, EAF, Askar OAG with ASI174mini for guiding

PixInsight 100%.

This was the project where I tested $T + Ha * 3 (with SPCC used after so must keep stars) and $T + (Ha – med ( Ha)) * 3 for the red channel formula with pixel math. No question for a galaxy the first one works better otherwise the image has a red caste that is too much (using the median calculation). By using the first formula the bluish color of the spirals/stars is more obvious. The video that this information came from is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIKeBB0eSXo at 1:11.