M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy
M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy. This galaxy, the nearest to us, is around 2.5 million light-years away. It is 130,000 light years across and is approx 3 degrees by 1 degree. The small fuzzy blob below and right of centre in this image is a companion galaxy M110 and the even smaller blob to the left of centre is the companion galaxy M32.
This image was taken on the early morning of 3rd September 2011. It consists of 18 x 10 minute subs (=3 hours) with a Canon 40D DSLR through a Canon 200mm telephoto lens. The camera was mounted directly on an NEQ6 mount and was guided by means of an ST80 telescope.
The resulting subs together with darks and flats were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and processed in Photoshop CS2
