First M31 in 2020 (astropical)

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

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First M31 in 2020

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First M31 in 2020

It is a year ago I last took a picture of M31. It didn't change or age at all. Wish I could compete.

Finally about three hours of clear sky with good transparency with high air humidity. The mount started with periodic drops in RA during autoguiding and I decided to react like a politician -- wait and do nothing. Et voila, after a short while the curve was flat.

Amazing how fast time is flying. Around midnight, Pagasus and Andromeda were already at an altitude worth imaging, heralding autumn. Only a few Perseids witnessed but in turn saw a larger body (fortunately) burning up brightly. All kind of junk is crossing images, but this fireball failed to show up.

Today (13th) is the Eve of 'Obon', a Japanese custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors thru three days. For this purpose, most people (a few this year though) living and working away from their home towns are returning to their parent's home to for a family reunion and for visiting graves to honor their late relatives, many of them having been ignored while still living. In earlier years children and grandchildren were happy to receive some coins as pocket money from grandpa or grandma. Nowadays they expect banknotes or shares. As soon as they get their bonus they draw their smartphone (if grandpa has WiFi) and stay glued to it until departure. New Year isn't much different. Well, it is a popular custom deserving (more) respect.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

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.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
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.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
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 success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3875122
PixInsight job	HRRZAL3GWIWBQ4FAIL9XGZLGYAO5UKD4
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	00h42m41s.87
RA (top/left)	00h38m34s.34
RA (top/right)	00h36m09s.29
RA (bottom/right)	00h46m35s.92
RA (bottom/left)	00h49m32s.79

Dec (center)	+41°15′51″.3
Dec (top/left)	+43°04′44″.9
Dec (top/right)	+39°44′10″.7
Dec (bottom/right)	+39°26′25″.7
Dec (bottom/left)	+42°46′03″.6

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First M31 in 2020

First M31 in 2020

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Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

First M31 in 2020

First M31 in 2020

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

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