Andromeda Galaxy

Catalog: Messier 31 / NGC 224

Constellation: Andromeda

Telescope: 11-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain CPC

Camera: Canon Digital Rebel EOS SL1

Software: DeepSkyStacker (mine) and Adobe Photoshop (courtesy of my dad)

Exposure: 10 sec

ISO: 800 for the pics themselves, but I derped and did 400 for my “flats,” so it’s a little…mixed? 😅

Andromeda Galaxy is our nearest intergalactic neighbor.

This pic definitely isn’t the best it could be. But you can make out the dust trails of the spiral arms, arching diagonally over the bright galactic nucleus.

While the universe is generally expanding and, at great distances, galaxies are in motion apart from one another, local gravitational forces have our home Milky Way Galaxy set on a collision course for Andromeda. But don’t hold your breath…it won’t be for about 4-5 billion years!

Andromeda itself is a barred spiral galaxy.

9 replies to “Andromeda Galaxy”

      4. Yours is an 8-inch, correct? A smaller objective mirror than my 11-inch? Which would make your telescope’s range a bit more wide-field than mine? I can’t fit all of Andromeda in one shot, but you might be able to. (I’m not sure if it will have any effect on the brightness of the nucleus. What I’m wondering–with absolutely no evidence either way–is whether the higher light-gathering power of my narrower-field telescope invites the nucleus to “wash out” the image. No way to know without further testing.)

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      5. Ah I see what you’re saying now. Yes you’re correct… I still might not get all of Andromeda in though as I’m given to understand it’s size is bigger than the moon and with my camera attached I can only see a quarter(ish) of the moon.
        Btw… On my blog I have a page for my astrophotography work…

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