I took this roughly at 10:30pm in the Jacksonville Florida area pointing my camera straight up, just to see what I could get. Then I saw what appears to be a distant gas cloud or Galaxy I checked on skysafari and it appears to be the Triangulum Galaxy but I’m not certain as I just pointed my phone up and that’s the only thing that made sense.
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I don’t think it is the Triangulum Galaxy, I think the arms are going the wrong way.
It might be the Pinwheel Galaxy
But nice to see you are trying, keep at it.
I use Stellarium as my locator.
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Looking Up a Skychart, it’s M101
Regards
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@PIEJr @Jacob_Meyers @Angel_Manuel_Lopez I set Stellarium to Jacksonville, FL, around 10:30 pm on both Nov 23 and 24, and it showed M101 below the northern horizon. So he must have seen something else.
Thank you for your help, but I have come to the conclusion that it is the Triangulum galaxy using a software that I have tought myself how to use. Also, the pinwheel galaxy would be below the horizon when I took the picture.
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I fired up sky safari and M33 is indeed in that general area
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It’s a really interesting capture — nicely done for a spontaneous phone shot pointed straight up! However, it’s extremely unlikely that this is the Triangulum Galaxy (M33). Triangulum has a very low surface brightness, and even under dark rural skies it’s difficult to resolve visually — let alone with an un-tracked smartphone exposure in a light-polluted area like Jacksonville.
What you’re seeing is much more likely either:
• a patch of thin upper-atmospheric clouds illuminated by city light, or
• a bit of lens flare / sensor noise from the camera processing.
For reference, when M33 is imaged from Earth with proper astro-equipment, it appears as a faint, diffuse spiral with a very structured shape. Your object looks more amorphous and lacks that spiral definition.
Still, the curiosity and experimentation are awesome — this is exactly how people get hooked on astronomy! If you’re interested in actually capturing M33 or other deep-sky objects, I’d recommend trying:
• a tripod so the phone is steady
• a longer exposure / multiple stacked exposures
• a dark-sky location away from city lights
Happy sky-exploring! Let us know what else you capture.
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