Messier 31 - The Andromeda Galaxy - with Neighbors M32 and M110
Date: August 25, 2020
Cosgrove’s Cosmos Catalog ➤#0050
Messier 31 - The Great Andromeda Galaxy - with its neighbors Messier 32 and Messier 110 (Click to zoom)
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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 top left closest to the core of M31) and M110 (at the bottom right)can be seen in the frame. These galaxies are neighbors and are, or have been, interacted with M31. M32 appears to have had a close encounter with M31 in the past and it is believed that M32 was once much larger and M31 stripped away some of that mass and triggered a period of extensive star formation in M32's core that we see the result of today. M110 is also currently interacting with M31 now.
As I shared with my first image of M31 taken about a year ago, it is projected that Our Milky Way and M31 will collide in the future, forming an elliptical galaxy. Don't sweat it - it won't happen for 4.5 billion years from now…
Annotated Image
Annotated image of M31, M32m and M110 created with Pixinsight’s Imagesolver and AnotateImage scripts.
Location in the Sky
IAU/Sky & Telescope Constellation Chart with Messier 31 indicated by a yellow arrow.
About the Project
My shortest focal length telescope is 920mm, so you would not think this would be an optimal rig for shooting something as large as M31, but why not give it a go?
So lately I have been on a kick to put more effort into my composition. I now have the Pegasus Astro Falcon Camera Rotator mounted on the scope and Sequence Generator Pro will support via ASCOM drivers, I can use the Framing and Mosaic Tool to determine the precise framing that I want to get. Even better, I can do this in advance, from the comfort of my recliner well before the imaging session. Once this has been done and made part of a sequence, SGP will control things and dial in the positioning and the rotation to get the planned framing. I love this capability!
My thought here was to frame things such that you could see the core of the galaxy but also include its companion elliptical galaxies, M32 and M110 in the same frame. Did it work? That’s for you to judge!
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
90 x 150 seconds, bin 1x1 @ -15C
Cal Frames
50 x 2 second Bias exposures
25 x 150 second Dark exposures bin 1x1 @ -15C
50 Flats
Capture Hardware
Scope: William Optics 132mm FLT F/7 APO
Guide Scope: Apterna 60mm
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290Mini
Focus Motor: Pegasus Astro Focus Cube 2
Field Rotator: Pegasus Astro Falcon
Mount: Ioptron CEM60Polar Alignment: Ioptron Ipolar integrated alignment cameras
Software
Capture Software: Control: PHD2 Guider, Sequence Generator Pro controller
Image Processing: Deepsky Stacker, Pixinsight, Photoshop, Coffee, extensive processing indecision and second guessing, and much swearing…..
During the Summer of 2020, whilst stuck at home because of Covid I became very in improving the automation of the platform and achieving a more precise framing of the shots I made…