M31 - Andromeda Galaxy (Tom Gray)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Andromeda (And) · Contains: Andromeda Galaxy · M 110 · M 31 · M 32 · NGC 205 · NGC 221 · NGC 224

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M31 - Andromeda Galaxy

Why is our Milky Way neighbour so difficult to image? Almost every amateur site has wonderful, high resolution images of M31, which I have yet to emulate. In truth many of these stunning portraits are made using very fine, and expensive, kit and under much better skies.

I seem to be doing OK with smaller galaxies, but the sheer size of M31 makes this a challenge. I have tried to image M31 through my Meade 2080 LX5, which, with/out a focal reducer, gives ridiculously small fields of view in my DSI-IIC camera. Using a Pentax zoom lens at 210mm, I have managed to capture most of M31, although the outer diffuse spiral arms still fill the frame.

The image remains very grainy, which may in part be due to the short exposures used (30s), although I managed 40 minutes data. I took these at f6 to reduce vignetting, but it may be better to try with the lens wide open (f4 on this fairly slow lens), or better still through a dedicated fast wide-field scope.

Anyway, it's a start, and even if you hardly recognise it, at least plate solving does (faint praise). I'll try some longer guided exposures next Autumn, and perhaps Santa will bring me something nice for Christmas...here's hoping, or dreaming.

Camera Lens Astrophotography
Altair Astro 183 M/C Hypercams
The OSC Club (One Shot Camera)

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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3484748
PixInsight job	KZH60UAGXTCJARQRN6GPTBOZWSJLGNCL
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	PLATE_SOLVING_IMAGE

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M31 - Andromeda Galaxy

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M31 - Andromeda Galaxy

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