The Andromeda Galaxy
About Messier 31
Most astrophotographers can't resist going back year after year to shoot this amazing galaxy! I'm no different. Each year in the fall, I tell myself to skip it... but I don't.
This version of Messier Catalogue 31 was taken from my home in Illinois under Bortle ~8 skies, I get decent results with a older but very good Light Pollution filter, the Optolong L-Pro.
M31 is a Barred Spiral Galaxy (SAb) lying 'just' 2.5 million lights years away. The picture also contains two elliptical galaxies, M32 and M101.
M31 resides in the Andromeda Constellation.
Photo Capture Info:
(485) 3 Minute exposures - 24 hrs, ~15 mins
Optical Equipment Used:
Optolong L-Pro Light Pollution Filter
Scope: William Optics Zenithstar 61II APO Refractor
Camera: ZWO 183MC Pro
Guide scope: William Optics 32mm Guide scope
Guide camera: ZWO ASI120mm-mini
Computerized Equipment and Software:
Mount: iOptron GEM 28
Beelink Mini PC S Intel 11th Gen
Focuser: ZWO EAF (Electronically Assisted Focuser)
Filter Wheel: ZWO 5 Position
Pegasus Pocket Powerbox
PixInsight for Processing
Andromeda
Image courtesy of wonderful, free, software: Stellarium
Mythology:
Andromeda was an ancient princess who was saved from being sacrificed to the sea monster Cetus by the hero Perseus. Cassiopeia and Cepheus are her parents, who are forced to sacrifice their daughter as punishment for insulting the ancient gods. Within the constellation of Andromeda is located M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. M31 is a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way, and is the most distant object a person can observe without the use of a telescope. The constellation is located to the east of Pegasus and just below Cassiopeia.
Astronomy Facts:
GREAT for Binoculars under dark skies!
You can see it as a big smudge with you unaided eye under very dark skies. I love seeing it this way... it gives me goose bumps!
Apparent size is 5 times the full moon.
M31 will pass through our galaxy in about four to five billion years. Star collisions between the two galaxies extremely unlikely to happen.
Andromeda, Princess of Ethiopia, is visible in the northern hemisphere from August through January
PixInsight Processing Details
WBPP used for calibrating and stacking (R,G,B in separate channels)
BlurXterminator on each channel
Used SpectrophotometricCC in RGB mode to color correct everything
Saved to TIFF and ran GraXpert to remove Gradients
Imported back into PixInsight
Histogram Stretch to get to Linear State
Removed Stars using StarXTerminator
NoiseXterminator @ 90
GeneralizedHyberbolicStretch to bring out the color more and darken background
HDRMultiscaleTransform to tone down the Core of the galaxy and enhance details
Slight S-Curves Adjustment
LocalHistogramEqualization @ 25
LocalHistogramEqualization @ 75
MultiscaleLinearTransform with small values to Sharpen
Curves on the blue channel to bring out the slightly more blue in the outer arms
NoiseXterminator @ 59
Added back stars using PixelMath
ICCProfileTransformation (Ready image for the Web)
Rotated image 180 degrees