Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 May 2016
28′ x 28′ deep V- and I-band images of the center and of the SE field of M33 have been obtained at the prime focus of the Canada-France-Hawaii 3.6m telescope. They allowed to map separately the young blue stars, the red supergiants, the red giants and the extreme AGB stars. The disk as traced by red giants has a surprisingly sharp edge. The young blue stars trace the spiral structure very well, but the detailed comparison with H I and CO maps does not show a very good correspondence. The simple spiral-shock model of star formation proposed for the South arm of M33 is not confirmed. On the edge of the galaxy, star formation starts at a column density of H I of about 3 x 1020 atom cm−2. The colour-magnitude diagram for the halo stars shows a broadened red giant branch with a mean metallicity [Fe/H] ≃ −1.0. The shape of the red giant branch confirms the distance modulus of 24.82±0.20 for M33.