Object info

The latest image of M31, better known as The (Great) Andromeda Galaxy. Located in the constellation Andromeda, it is our closest (normal) galaxy companion at a distance of 2.9 million light years. In a reasonably dark location it is possible to see this galaxy with the naked eye. The 2 companion galaxies, M32 (above) and M110 (below) are also visible in the image.

Processing

Monochrome images of the ST8300M were combined with DSLR color data of the previous image taken in 2008.
Mono images were acquired using CCDSoft v5, calibration, aligning and stacking was done in ImagesPlus v2.8
Further processing in Photoshop CS2.

Comments

Lots of noise and gradients in DSLR color data !

Previous versions

Oct 22, 2008 - 1280 x 960 Pixel (551 kB)
Optics : TMB 80/480 + Baader Moon & Skyglow
Mount : Losmandy G-11 + Canon 350D
Exposure : 43 x 420 sec @ ISO400 = 5h

Oct 06, 2007 - 1024 x 768 Pixel (442 kB)
Optics : TMB 80/480 + Baader UHC-S
Mount : Losmandy G-11 + Canon 350D
Exposure : 22 x 360 sec @ ISO800 = 2h 12m

Oct 16, 2006 - 900 x 675 Pixel (278 kB)
Optics : TMB 80/480 + Baader Moon & Skyglow
Mount : Losmandy G-11 + Canon 20D
Exposure : 30 x 240 sec @ ISO800 = 2h