How far can you see? The most distant object easily visible to the unaided eye is M31, the great Andromeda Galaxy, over two million light-years away. Without a telescope, even this immense spiral galaxy appears as an unremarkable, faint, nebulous cloud in the constellation Andromeda. But a bright yellow nucleus, dark winding dust lanes, luminous blue spiral arms, and bright red emission nebulas are recorded in this stunning six-hour telescopic digital mosaic of our closest major galactic neighbor. While even casual skygazers are now inspired by the knowledge that there are many distant galaxies like M31, astronomers seriously debated this fundamental concept only 100 years ago. Were these "spiral nebulae" simply outlying gas clouds in our own Milky Way Galaxy or were they "island universes" -- distant galaxies of stars comparable to the Milky Way itself? This question was central to the famous Shapley-Curtis debate of 1920, which was later resolved by observations favoring Andromeda being just like our Milky Way Galaxy -- a conclusion making the rest of the universe much more vast than many had ever imagined. (APOD)
M31, M32 and M110 galaxy
Optic: Vixen VSD100 at F3
Mount: Software Bisque Paramount MX
Camera: SBIG STF8300M
Filters: Baader Ha(7nm) LRGB
Guider: SBIG Sti on 60mm GuideScope
Exposure:
Ha: 5x60s + 10x600s + 60x 600s binning 2x2
L: 5x20s+5x60s+18x180s
R: 4x20s+4x60s+10x180s
G: 5x20s+5x60s+9x180s
B: 10x20s+10x60s+16x180s
Integration: 6.6 hours
Binning: All 1x1 Ha 1x1 and 2x2
Calibration: Flats, Dark, Dark Flat, Bias
CCD Sensor Temp: -15c
Dithering: Yes
Software: TheSkyX, ImagesPlus, Registar, PixInsight, Photoshop
- Posted on
- Sunday 1 September 2019
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- Software
- Adobe Photoshop CC 2017 (Macintosh)
8 comments
I'm writing (in Dutch) on astrophotography and would like to illustrate this article with this nice photo of the Andrimeda galaxy. Of course I'll mention the author! Could you grant me permission?
Mat
You are in luck Javier! The Andromeda Galaxy would love to meet you too. You can get up close and sexy personal with it when it collides with our own Milky Way Galaxy in around 4.5 billion years. I hope you're patient for true love! :-)
Thank you so much to visit my site and pics. Info is totally correct. Spikes are comes cause of bloom protection issue. Please read this forum:
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/450538-spike-coming-off-bright-star-normal/
Regards
Amir
"Optic: Vixen VSD100 at F3" ??
But I want to know, why stars are so big, and have spikes ?
Spikes can be digitally added, but stars profile are not tipically from a F4 unobstructed refractor. It seems like a short focal newton with medium/big size obstruction picture.
Maybe picture information is incorrect, and image was taken with a catadioptric telescope?, perhaps a taka 180.
Can you clarify this?.
Thanks.
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