Tonight was an amazing night. I went out at 7:30pm. This is my first time observing since the time change; it’s getting dark around 5:30pm now, which is great. I had one simple goal for tonight: observe the Triangulum Galaxy (M33). I used my SkyandTelescope pocket atlas for the first time. I like it but I have to get used to it. Mobile sky maps are easier to read for me right now. This was also the first night I listened to music while observing. The song is The Far River by John Sierre. Hubblesite’s Tonights Sky videos use that music. It is relaxing and awe inspiring, really complementary to observing. Seeing and transparency were both above average. I could pick out magnitude 4.8 stars with my naked eye. I got sidetracked in Cassiopeia at first, finding a few NGC open clusters with the Pocket Atlas. I revisited M103, nothing special. Then I moved on to my goal, the Triangulum Galaxy. I used Sky Safari Plus as my guide. The Sky map is really good. I searched for 5 minutes with no luck. Then I slowly went through the area it was supposed to be in. I saw a very faint, large smudge! I moved it around the eyepiece to make sure I wasn’t just seeing things and sure enough, it was M33! I looked through the Tel-Rad and confirmed it’s position in the sky. I can’t believe I found it in an orange zone on the bortle scale. I spent 10 minutes gazing at it. Thinking about how their could be intelligent life there looking at our own Milky Way Galaxy. The music added a nice effect to it also. I wrapped up the night at 9:15pm, looking at Jupiter, it’s four moons in a straight line, and the Great Red Spot. The GRS transited across the center of the planet at 8:15pm, but getting earlier each day. Tonight was my last chance to see it for a couple of weeks.
I did not take this picture.
M33 Triangulum Galaxy
