NGC 604 (M33 HII region)

[Preston Pendergraft]

I was out observing before the Moon came up on Sunday, working on the Local Group Galactic Neighborhood observing program before Moonrise (then worked on the Double Star program). I was using a 10in SCT.

One of the objects I observed was M33 at a lowish power (62.5X). The galaxy was clearly round and visable with some brightning to the center that would be the core. However in the galaxy was a bright spot that was what I thought a foreground star but now I am wondering if it is NGC 604. The object was at the 10 o’clock position from the center of the galaxy and in the outter part of it. It was clearly bright and easy to see, even easier then the core of the galaxy. I made of sketch of the galaxy and put the object now in question in the sketch since it was so easy to see. I can get the sketch uploaded if y'all think that would help.

I honestly thought this was a foreground star so I didn’t spend too much time looking at it, but I was reading up on M33 HII regions and saw Steve Gottlieb’s article on his website and it has me thinking this might have been NGC 604. Unfortunely I was only using 62.5X since my goal was to sketch the galaxy versus looking for neat objects in it.

Any thoughts on this? I think it definitely deserves a follow up observation. http://www.astronomy-mall.com/Adventures.In.Deep.Space/M33.HII-Star.Clouds.html

[Uwe Glahn]

Preston,


...at the 10 o’clock position from the center
10 o’clock from where? With 63x the HII region should be visible as very small, but non stellar object.

Please check Howard's OOTW (http://www.deepskyforum.com/showthread.php?453-Object-of-the-Week-October-6-2013-NGC-604) for more details.

[Preston Pendergraft]

Hey Uwe,

Thanks for the link to the earlier OOTW. After looking at those sketches, what I saw was stellar and not a fuzz like NGC 604 appears to be. I will put this object on my list for the next time I can get out and observe.