Andromeda Galaxy: This is Milky Way´s beautiful sister in space, 2.6 million light years(LY) away, about 160000 LY in diameter, a thousand billion stars. Intelligent beings within Andromeda would have a similar sight viewing Milky Way, our cosmic home. Andromeda is accompanied by two companion galaxies, M110 to the lower left and M32 to the upper right of the center. Like Milky Way Andromeda has a very bright core, in the very center of it one or probably two gigantic black holes and also dark dust bands around the core with star generating areas in the spiral arms.
Object |
Andromeda Galaxy with Core Structures |
|---|---|
Catagory |
Galaxies |
Designation |
M 031 |
Constellation |
Andromeda |
Optics |
Vixen R200SS 8 inch f/4.6 with Televue Paracorr SBIG |
Camera |
SBIG STL 11000M with internal CFW 5 |
Exposure |
4x10min (1x1 bin) each Astrodon True Balance RGB filterset, Maxim DL for image acquisition |
Calibration |
Dark + Flat Frame |
|---|---|
Guiding |
Selfguiding |
Mount |
Takahashi EM-11 |
Processing |
Maxim DL5, Photoshop. Color Code RGB |
Location, Date |
Eningen, Germany - 27 July 2009 |
Remark |
This image has been processed to reveal the fine structures in the very bright core of the galaxy |