M31 - Andromeda Galaxy

M31 - Andromeda Galaxy

M31 also know as NGC 224 is the nearest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy.  It is the most distant object visible to the human eye.  The distance from the earth is about 2.2 million years, and appears as a fuzzy patch in the night sky.  It has been observe since ancient times an was first catalogued as long ago as 905 AD.  It is quite large and covers over 3 degrees of sky on it's longest side.  Photographing it is a challenge due to it's size.  I used a Nikon zoom lense of about 200mm to capture this picture.  I layered onto it several mosaics I took with my Takahashi FSQ (500mm) refractor.  The diameter is believed to be about 125,000 light years across.  It has two prominent satellite galaxies, M32 and NGC 205.

Date:  09-12-02

Telescope:

Wide Angle Portion: Nikon 200mm       Camera:ST8XE with Steve Mandel's adapter. 

Galaxy Itself: FSQ 106 two mosaics

Processing: Superimposed the mosaic on the wide able picture.