Messier 31, The Andromeda Galaxy, and friends. Not as easy to image as it would seem! (Mark C. Helton)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Andromeda (And) · Contains: Andromeda Galaxy · HD3969 · HD4143 · HD4174 · HD4322 · M 110 · M 31 · M 32 · NGC 205 · NGC 206 · NGC 221 · NGC 224

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Messier 31, The Andromeda Galaxy, and friends. Not as easy to image as it would seem!

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Messier 31, The Andromeda Galaxy, and friends. Not as easy to image as it would seem!

Our closest Grand Design neighbor, and a galaxy that will one day overtake our Milky Way, to merge into a new elliptical galaxy, Messier 31. I have imaged this galaxy many times, and every time I do, I see something new. Like bringing out more detail in the very dim outer arms. This galaxy, the only Grand Design galaxy visible to the naked eye, would seemingly be easy to image. However, with its very bright inner core, and very dim outer arms, it really is not an easy target as it would seem that it should be. This was imaged with no filter. I wanted to see what I could bring out in just visible light. Surprisingly a lot more of the new star forming regions than I thought that I would see. I even seem to see the inner cores of the two orbiting galaxies, M32, and M110. I had very high wind gusts last night, over 25mph, so my guiding was terrible. I give the Ioptron HEM 44EC credit for helping make up, what the guiding was fighting to keep the mount on track. Stars are not perfectly round, but it was a beautiful clear night, at least till about 1:30a, so I had to set up despite the wind. Clear Skies
Mark

Deep Sky Northern Hemisphere
AstroWorld TV
The refractors!
Imaged with N.I.N.A.
Massachusetts Astro
"Simply Stellarvue"

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8896278
PixInsight job	AS2HI2JLPZHOSKVRCHV21HO8E1EJYIU8
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	00h42m39s.51
RA (top/left)	00h45m37s.69
RA (top/right)	00h47m15s.12
RA (bottom/right)	00h39m34s.83
RA (bottom/left)	00h38m11s.53

Dec (center)	+41°17′02″.8
Dec (top/left)	+40°06′20″.6
Dec (top/right)	+42°16′07″.10
Dec (bottom/right)	+42°27′19″.8
Dec (bottom/left)	+40°17′14″.2

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Messier 31, The Andromeda Galaxy, and friends. Not as easy to image as it would seem!

Messier 31, The Andromeda Galaxy, and friends. Not as easy to image as it would seem!

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Messier 31, The Andromeda Galaxy, and friends. Not as easy to image as it would seem!

Messier 31, The Andromeda Galaxy, and friends. Not as easy to image as it would seem!

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