The great Andromeda galaxy (M31)

In clear nights, this galaxy is visible as faint patch to the observer. It’s located approximately 4 degrees south-west of the 3.8 mag star μ Andromeda. Publicly known as the great Andromeda Galaxy it is listed as number 31 (M31) in Charles Messier’s Catalog.It is said to be the only extra-galactic object visible by naked eye. O.k. – there shall be observers who claim that they have seen even fainter objects like the well-known Triangulum Nebula (M33) by unaided eye, but proof is missing and if it is true, their eyes must be much better than the average citizen’s. An extra dark location and best weather conditions would be an absolute must.

The great Andromeda galaxy

Tech data:
CCD gameraSBIG STL1000M at -24°C chip temperature.
Takahashi FSQ 106 Quadruplett Petzval APO ED refractor.
Aperture: 106mm, focal length: 530mm, f/D = 5
Location: Panzerplattform Gurnigelpass, November 18, 2009.

Exposures (minutes) – unbinned.

It’s absolutely possible, to observe single stars and entire star clusters as well as their interactions among each others in a far-away galaxy. The below is a shot of NGC206, a star cloud in the Andromeda galaxy. It can easily be resolved into single stars. The ability to resolve galaxies into single stars gave proof that these faint objects in fact were of similar nature to our own milky way. Not to forget, that by this insight, the size of our universe increased tremendously as these tiny faint patches out there turned into objects of immense diameters, each consisting of several billion stars.

NGC206 – stellar cloud NGC206 in the Andromeda galaxy

Tech data:
CCD camera SBIG STL-11000M/C2 at -25°C sensor temperature
Officina Stellare Pro RC500 Ritchey Chretien telescope
Aperture: 500mm, focal length: 4000mm f/D = 8
Astro Optik Kohler (AOKSwiss) Herkules V48 (DDM) mount.
Location: Observatorio Son Bí, Llucmajor, Mallorca, 01. – 03.12.2016

Exposures (minutes) – R/G/B unbinned.