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This is one of the most popular targets for all stargazers, advanced or novice, with a large or small aperature telescope. It is located on the boarder of the constellations Andromeda and Pegasus, high in the sky on early Autumn evenings. In any size telescope, it appears as a fuzzy oblong blob, but on the darkest clearest nights the outer arms are easily discernable. One of the most fascinating things about the great andromeda galaxy is that it's really the only object in the Northern Hemisphere visible in the evening which is not part of the Milky Way galaxy. In the southern hemisphere, the Milky way's two companion galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic clouds are easily visible. It is said that two other objects, M80 and M33, both nearby galaxies are also visible, but I've never seen either of them with the naked eye.
This galaxy is approximately 2.3 million light years from our galaxy, and look out above, it is slowly but surely, at a speed of 65km/sec, merging into our own galaxy. At that rate, I think it's going to be a few million years before the big collision ;-)
Note to the bottom right and just above to the left of center, two other companion galaxies, M32 and M110. Just like our galaxy, M31 has other galaxies that orbit nearby and will eventually be swallowed to form an even larger galaxy. For more information on M31 the Great Andromeda Galaxy, click here.
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Technical Data
Scope: 105mm Astrophysics Traveler
Guiding: ST4
Camera: Canon 20d
Composition: 8 10 minute exposures, registered in Registar and stacked and processed in Photoshop. |
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