Figure 1 – The Triangulum Galaxy. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

We have been sitting out the storm here in New England , and I have been thinking of other spiral whirlpool. For the last few weeks I have been anxiously awaiting delivery of fresh image data from the Skygems Veloce 200 RH telescope in Spain, building up images and I thought today perfect for processing these. Hence, Figure 1 of M33 the Triangulum Galaxy.

M33 is 2.73 million light years away. It is, in fact, a member of our local galaxy group.So if you want, it is a galactic close neighbor.

It always struck me as sobering that the light in the image traveled 2.73 million years to get here and, if I had not captured it, it would have fallen on blind eyes. It is reminiscent of “If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear it, did it really make a sound.” While this may sound like mumbo jumbo musings, the question first proposed by George Berkeley (1685 – 1753) in the 18th Century is really at the heart of the controversy between quantum mechanics and more determinists Newtonian physics – the inseparability between the observer and the observed. 

I think that part of the beauty of astronomy and astrophysical objects is the way that they challenge our minds by huge distances, huge time scales, and huge sizes. They at once point to the minuscule size of men and women and at the same time to their infinite ability to comprehend. 

This is a stack of five 600 sec exposures of the Skygems Veloce 200 RH Telescope in Spain.