Messier 31 - The Andromeda Galaxy - 2019 Version
Date: September 6, 2019
Cosgrove’s Cosmos Catalog ➤#0009
Messier 31 - The Great Andromeda Galaxy (click to enlarge)
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About the Target
Messier 31 is also known as NGC 224 and the Andromeda Galaxy, or as the Andromeda Nebula before we knew what galaxies were. It can be seen by the naked eye in the constellation Andromeda (how appropriate!) and is our closest galactic neighbor located 2.5 Million light-years away. It is estimated that it contains about one trillion stars - twice that of our own Milky Way.
M32 (at the left of M31) can be seen in the frame.
Fun fact, M31 is traveling in our direction at 62 miles a second. In 4 billion years it is predicted that it will collide with our galaxy and the aftermath will be a messed up elliptical galaxy.
Annotated Image
Annotated image of M31 and M32 was created with Pixinsight’s Imagesolver and AnnotateImage scripts.
Location in the Sky
IAU/Sky & Telescope Constellation Chart with Messier 31 indicated by a yellow arrow.
About the Project
This image is the result of 20 stacked exposure of two minutes each. Pretty happy with this first effort!
Comment on 08/01/21
This image was impressive to me when I first took it, and it is still impressive to me today. The galaxy is so large and bright, that it is an easy target and one then even beginners can get a great image of!
More Info
Wikipedia: Messier 31
NASA: Take a "Swift" Tour of the Andromeda Galaxy
Carnegie Science: Hubble's Famous M31 VAR! plate
The SkyLive: Messier 31
Capture Details
Lights
20 x 120 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C
Cal Frames
not recorded
Capture Hardware
Scope: William Optics 132mm FLT F/7 APO
Guide Scope: Apterna 60mm
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290Mini
Mount: Ioptron CEM60Polar
Software
Capture Software: Control: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller
Image Processing: Deepsky Stacker, Photoshop, Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second-guessing, and much swearing…..
After much research, and a few phone calls to the helpful friendly folks at Highpoint Scientific , my first rig was on order! Within a week I had everything I needed to start doing astrophotography. But of course, I had no real clue how to actually do ANY of it. I barely knew how to put the pieces together much less make them work. This was the start of my journey.