Ray Majrowski Thanks for 1.5 + Million views
M31 Andromeda Galaxy
The Andromeda galaxy, 2.5 million lightyears distant, the furthest object in the sky that can be seen with the naked eye. Contains more than 400 billion stars, the bright yellow core has most of the mass, consisting of the oldest yellow stars. The blue regions around the galaxy consist of younger hotter stars. The darker areas consist of dust and gas lanes tracing out the spiral arms of the galaxy. The galaxy is edge on with a slight tilt to our line of site, the warp in the galaxy stands out clearly, this is possibly due to gravitational interactions with the satellite galaxies, or nearby galaxies like M33 in Triangulum. Note the warp is in the outer regions of the galaxy, where the gravity is less strong. The two smaller satellite galaxies are gravitationally tied to Andromeda and interact with it.
Bortle class 6/7 skies.
Exposure time, 2hrs 42m 41s, 233 frames @ ISO 6400, 3200, 1600. Capture and processing time etc approx. 30hrs, several dozen subs were deleted due to slight tracking errors and light pollution, haze, fogging etc.
80mm F6 refractor
Fornax Lightrack mount unguided
Canon 760D, no filters were used.
Post processing in Lightroom and Canon DDP.
Subs collected over several nights in all conditions, ie dodging clouds and haze, moon present and only 3 clears nights with excellent seeing, but I could not dedicate all the time to M31, read on.
Due to the type of mount I use, I cannot track across the Zenith as my 500mm refractor hits against the Fornax drive, I would have to wait for 1 to 2 hours for the sky to move to the west allowing my scope to be set up on the other side of the mount. I would look at objects rising in the east until I could get back to M31 a while later.
M31 Andromeda Galaxy
The Andromeda galaxy, 2.5 million lightyears distant, the furthest object in the sky that can be seen with the naked eye. Contains more than 400 billion stars, the bright yellow core has most of the mass, consisting of the oldest yellow stars. The blue regions around the galaxy consist of younger hotter stars. The darker areas consist of dust and gas lanes tracing out the spiral arms of the galaxy. The galaxy is edge on with a slight tilt to our line of site, the warp in the galaxy stands out clearly, this is possibly due to gravitational interactions with the satellite galaxies, or nearby galaxies like M33 in Triangulum. Note the warp is in the outer regions of the galaxy, where the gravity is less strong. The two smaller satellite galaxies are gravitationally tied to Andromeda and interact with it.
Bortle class 6/7 skies.
Exposure time, 2hrs 42m 41s, 233 frames @ ISO 6400, 3200, 1600. Capture and processing time etc approx. 30hrs, several dozen subs were deleted due to slight tracking errors and light pollution, haze, fogging etc.
80mm F6 refractor
Fornax Lightrack mount unguided
Canon 760D, no filters were used.
Post processing in Lightroom and Canon DDP.
Subs collected over several nights in all conditions, ie dodging clouds and haze, moon present and only 3 clears nights with excellent seeing, but I could not dedicate all the time to M31, read on.
Due to the type of mount I use, I cannot track across the Zenith as my 500mm refractor hits against the Fornax drive, I would have to wait for 1 to 2 hours for the sky to move to the west allowing my scope to be set up on the other side of the mount. I would look at objects rising in the east until I could get back to M31 a while later.