M31 ‘Andromeda Galaxy’

This image was taken on the night of 9th October 2015, taken from the light polluted San Francisco Peninsular using an IR modified Canon 550D and an Orion ED80T telescope. I really wanted to get about 4 hours of data capture but was only able to get 55 minutes before the fog rolled in.

Messier 31, also known as the Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy about 2.5 million light-years from Earth. It is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way and holds about 1 Trillion stars, over double that in our own galaxy. The Andromeda Galaxy is on a collision course with the Milky Way and will likely result in the formation of a giant elliptical galaxy. That will be in about 3.75 billion years so no need to start stockpiling food and water just yet 😉

Image details:

• 5 x 1 minute
• 4 x 5 minute
• 3 x 10 minute

Flats, Darks & Bias frames were also used.

Images processed using PixInsight