the andromeda galaxy

[moonshinegnomie]

I learned some new processing techniques and so i shot M31,teh Andromeda galaxy last night. 3 hours of exposures in my backyard

[AllaN01Bear]

1. wow.

[question everything]

2. That's Amazing!

[eppur_se_muova]

3. What optics ? nt

[moonshinegnomie]

4. astrotech ed 72ii telescope and a sony a6000 camera

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. Omigod, my dear moonshinegnomie!

This is incredibly beautiful. I can almost see it turning in space.

Thank you for sharing!

[2naSalit]

6. Whoa!

That's amazing and cool!

[livetohike]

7. So beautiful. Thanks for sharing.n/t

[relayerbob]

8. Good job!!!

[Pluvious]

9. Spectacular achievement

I still remember the moment when if first saw Saturn and its rings through a telescope,
it was almost creepy, seemly so surreal

Seeing our "neighboring" galaxy directly must feel the same

If we could fully see M31 unaided in our night sky, is the arc span wide enough to resolve its form ?

[relayerbob]

11. It's much larger than the moon ....

This is a representation:

[Pluvious]

14. Holy crap !

That is just beautiful !

Thanks for sharing

[speak easy]

22. And it's heading our way.

Andromeda’s collision course with the Milky Way
https://www.astronomy.com/science/andromedas-collision-course-with-the-milky-way-this-week-in-astronomy-with-dave-eicher/

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

32. Brace yourself!

[progressoid]

33. Oh crap.

I need to get my affairs in order.

[Hekate]

39. I had no idea...

That is staggering

[marybourg]

12. I have seen it many times with averted vision from suburbs of NYC.

It’s clearly oval in shape, and white, but nothing else can be resolved.

[relayerbob]

10. How did you track it over the three hours?

[moonshinegnomie]

13. i have a mount that tracks the stars

i use a zwo am5 mount. once its polar aligned with the earth axis it rotates with the earth. what i do is take a series of exposures and use software to stack teh resulting images.

[relayerbob]

15. Very nice.I thought you might have an equatorial mount

[moonshinegnomie]

17. an eq mount is required for long exposures

an alt az mount can take short exposures but suffer from field rotation for anything longer than 30 seconds or less depending on teh location of tge object

[relayerbob]

29. Right. I wasn't sure how much your software could compensate for that

[aggiesal]

16. Very cool ...

[Chainfire]

18. I wouldn't have thought that you could get such an astounding photo from home equipment.

Congrats, it is gorgeous.

[AverageOldGuy]

19. WOW!!!

And you got M110, too!

[Bayard]

20. Amazing!

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

21. That's nice!

My Meade ETX will track okay like that, but it's only a 60mm backpack model.

[moonshinegnomie]

24. mine scope is not much bigger. its a 72 mm refractor

teh equatorial mount is what makes the difference. it eliminates field rotation which an alt az mount has

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

27. In one of my astronomy classes, the instructor had us expose a negative while tracking a certain nondescript star

(manually mind you) with the university's big reflecting telescope (naturally with an EQ mount) and then covered the piggyback SCT as class ended. The next night we had class we developed it (developer, stop-bath, fixer & wash) and then we were looking at something - not at all- printed in our Norton's Star Atlas. Turns out we were tracking Halley when it had just started to offgas but wasn't quite nekkid eye visible yet. We tracked it over several classes.

[BigOleDummy]

23. Nice!

My brother-in-law does astrophotography too. Spends days after a shoot processing! Has some nice stuff too.

[Duppers]

25. WOW❗❗

I've not seen a better image of the Andromeda Galaxy.

[tazkcmo]

26. Amazing

Thanks for the picture, it's outstanding.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

28. Helluva shot! Thanks!

[Grumpy Old Guy]

30. Stunning!

I wish I could do that.

[MLAA]

31. That is glorious!

[niyad]

34. Just breathtaking!

[Bluethroughu]

35. Simply stunning!

Beam me up Scottie!

[IbogaProject]

36. Our next Galactic acquisition!!

Great shot! We are due to merge w that galaxy over 4.5 to 10 billion years from now.
https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/andromeda-milky-way-galaxy-collision

[jerseyjim]

37. Nice job!

[burrowowl]

38. Bravo! Very beautiful!

[Hekate]

40. Stunning -- stunning. Thank you.

[RandySF]

41. I couldn't help myself.

[Oopsie Daisy]

42. Beautiful! (I wish I had a dark sky at night. Too much city light.)

[moonshinegnomie]

43. i shot this in the city

[Oopsie Daisy]

44. That's impressive.

You're very fortunate. Which city? DC and Alexandria have so much light pollution that it's difficult to see anything other than the brightest stars (and the moon.)

[moonshinegnomie]

45. austin texas

there are things you can do to help with light pollution.
for things like galaxies i use a light pollution filter that does an ok job especially on brighter objects
for nebula its a little easier. nebulas tend to emit light in only a couple very specific frequencies. there are filters that will block any light outside those frequencies.

just because you cant see objects with the naked eye they are still able to be photographed,especially the brighter objects like andromeda,orion,the pleaides etc.... I looked at a dark sky map,theres a scale called the bortle scale that show how dark the skies are. im in whats called bortle 7. for you it looks like belle view /bell haven are the same darkness as me


dark sky map
https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=4.00&lat=38.7944&lon=-77.0469&state=eyJiYXNlbWFwIjoiTGF5ZXJCaW5nUm9hZCIsIm92ZXJsYXkiOiJ3YV8yMDE1Iiwib3ZlcmxheWNvbG9yIjpmYWxzZSwib3ZlcmxheW9wYWNpdHkiOjYwLCJmZWF0dXJlc29wYWNpdHkiOjg1fQ==