[Chaos-l] NGC 604 and M33

[Robert Nielsen]

Michael,

Indeed, what we were seeing last night was NGC 604.   The drawing by 
Jeremy Perez on 
http://www.perezmedia.net/beltofvenus/archives/000274.html looks exactly 
like what I saw through your scope ... with the faint arm of M33 across 
the bottom.   But the interesting thing is that we were ALL correct - 
NGC 604 is a PART of M33!   It is one of the star forming regions (also 
known as HII regions) in the galaxy.  

And if you look at the Palomar photo on 
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/Messier/more/m033_n604.html, you will see 
that M33 is even bigger than what we were seeing last night in the 
scope.   There is a whole other arm outside the one containing NGC 
604!   It really is a large object.   It would have filled the entire 
eyepiece you were using!  I hope, sometime in my life, to be in a place 
that is dark enough (with a telescope) to see M33 in all its glory!

By the way, I'm glad things cleared up after I left.   I was using the 
tried-and-true Mark Lerch method of leaving an observing session to 
cause the skies to clear ... and it worked!

Robert