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Telescope Not Required

The Great Andromeda Galaxy, M31, is the closest spiral galaxy to ours - and considered our mirror image. Visible by the unaided eye, from darker suburban skies, it occupies a region of the sky equivalent to almost 6 full moons - about 3 degrees. Between its size and brightness, M31 is easily discernible in even wide field DSLR images of the night sky - even relatively shot exposures without tracking.

 

Two satellite galaxies of Andromeda are also visible - M110 (top, center) and M32 (below and right of center).

 

Looks like my sensor needs some cleaning... dark areas in the extended nebulosity (top and left) are likely dust on the sensor.

 

50% scale - crop

M31-f56_sig18apTifap_crop50r85q

 

20171116 - Newtown, PA

 

Nikon D5500

Nikon 300mm ED f/4.5 MF @f/5.6

30sx45, 3200iso

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Regim Sig18 stack w/darks & flats

Affinity Photo

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Uploaded on November 20, 2017