Messier 31 the Andromeda Galaxy
Messier 31 The Andromeda Galaxy. Our Closest Galaxy Neighbor. This object never gets old to me. The things it reveals to us are amazing. The small lighter colored area in the left side of the galaxy is NGC 206. It is a star cloud of more than 300 large blue stars. Zooming in to the feature can reveal some of the individual stars. Another M31 image on this page is higher resolution and reveals more of them. M31 has many such intriguing discoveries to explore.
Technical Information: This image was taken from a Bortle 4 site in Landers, CA, USA on a New Moon night. Telescope: Explore Scientific ES80 APO Refractor with a FL 480mm and an Orion .67 Reducer. Guiding was with Orion 50mm Guide Scope FL 242mm with a ZWO ASI290MC for the guide camera. Mount: Celestron Advanced VX. Main imaging camera: ASI294MC PRO cooled to -5C. Exposures: 24 x 120s with Gain at 120. No darks, flats or bias frames. Processed in PixInsight with use of Masked Stretch, Star Masks, Inverted and Non-Inverted Range Masks. Slight crop. Polar alignment was with SharpCap Pro.
Messier 31 the Andromeda Galaxy
Messier 31 The Andromeda Galaxy. Our Closest Galaxy Neighbor. This object never gets old to me. The things it reveals to us are amazing. The small lighter colored area in the left side of the galaxy is NGC 206. It is a star cloud of more than 300 large blue stars. Zooming in to the feature can reveal some of the individual stars. Another M31 image on this page is higher resolution and reveals more of them. M31 has many such intriguing discoveries to explore.
Technical Information: This image was taken from a Bortle 4 site in Landers, CA, USA on a New Moon night. Telescope: Explore Scientific ES80 APO Refractor with a FL 480mm and an Orion .67 Reducer. Guiding was with Orion 50mm Guide Scope FL 242mm with a ZWO ASI290MC for the guide camera. Mount: Celestron Advanced VX. Main imaging camera: ASI294MC PRO cooled to -5C. Exposures: 24 x 120s with Gain at 120. No darks, flats or bias frames. Processed in PixInsight with use of Masked Stretch, Star Masks, Inverted and Non-Inverted Range Masks. Slight crop. Polar alignment was with SharpCap Pro.