Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Andromeda (And)  ·  Contains:  32 And  ·  35 And  ·  35 nu. And  ·  Andromeda Galaxy  ·  HD2993  ·  HD3141  ·  HD3431  ·  HD3447  ·  HD3741  ·  HD3765  ·  HD3827  ·  HD3969  ·  HD4143  ·  HD4174  ·  HD4322  ·  HD4501  ·  HD4669  ·  HD4902  ·  M 110  ·  M 31  ·  M 32  ·  NGC 205  ·  NGC 206  ·  NGC 221  ·  NGC 224  ·  The star 32 And  ·  The star ν And
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M31 (Astrograph/Widefield), Adam Block
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M31 (Astrograph/Widefield)

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M31 (Astrograph/Widefield), Adam Block
Powered byPixInsight

M31 (Astrograph/Widefield)

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Description

This is my latest attempt at producing a reasonable widefield image of M31. (Next I need to add the moon for my "famous" Moon Over Andromeda image  ).
What is *really* fascinating about the image is that I found something I did not know about! This image records, as probably a great majority of widefield images of our nearest neighbor, the dwarf galaxy Andromeda IV. As I scanned the field I noted this small oval fuzzy thing next to a bright (foreground) star. I thought ...what IS that? Artifact? PNe? No... the latter couldn't be. Not in this field that is so well known. So I went to Simbad and found it. For many years this object was mysterious- but an HST image cleared that up. It is a surprisingly bluish dwarf galaxy perhaps some 20 million light years beyond Andromeda.  Discovered in 1972... and a fun little diversion in 2023.

RGB   8 : 8 : 8 Hours

andromeda_IV.jpg

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M31 (Astrograph/Widefield), Adam Block