Nebula near Triangulum Galaxy

[Bart]

Hello all

i was out a couple of days ago and had a good session. Used the advanced search function in SkySafari for the first time and concentrated on galaxies in Draco. Excellent function, by the way. You can select object by magnitude, altitutude etc. Really recommend it

Anyway, I was then visiting all the usual suspects which I like doing and went to M33. I spotted something relatively bright I never saw before. I looked it up and think it was NGC 604 a bright nebula.  What surprised me was I've observed M33 many times but never saw this before. I wondered if it is a case of just finding it, or were the conditions particularly good. I thought conditions were ok, but it was high in the sky and I was using a 16" Dob. Must look again in the 10" out of curiosity to see if it's visible. Maybe everyone else sees it regularly and it's just a case of me overlooking it previously. Anybody else familiar with this fella?

[cotterless45]

Yep, nice catch saw it this year from Skye with a 10" Dob, its bright !

old Nick.

[acey]

As you can see from the image, it's actually part of M33 - a bright HII region. Depending on the view it may appear as a completely detached object or as a bright outer part. It's not a particularly difficult object from a dark site but is easily overlooked because the rest of the galaxy steals most attention.

There are many designated HII regions and clusters in M33 - tracking them down is a good way of studying the galaxy. I've seen the NGC ones with a 12".

 

http://www.astronomy-mall.com/Adventures.In.Deep.Space/M33.HII-Star.Clouds.html

[Bart]

Thanks folks. Must have just overlooked it before. It's just that I was surprised how obvious it was the last night. It's always nice to get a surprise. 

While looking for the galaxy NGC 6946 in Draco, I came across a nice open cluster NGC 6939 nearby by accident. Nice when that happens. 

[YKSE]

Japp, I got 604 and a few others last year, in dark site, 605 was easy in my 8" in direct viision, if you look at the right position.