The Andromeda Galaxy ... Messier 31
The Andromeda Galaxy
This image is from three different nights, Nov 2, 3, and 4 using the ED80T (3.1") telescope with a 0.8x field reducer providing a focal ratio of f/4.8. I took the red filter image on Nov 2 & 4 with a total of usable images of 1h 54mn ... and the green and the blue Nov 3 with each of those at 1hr 30mn each giving the entire image exposure of nearly 5 hours.
The camera used was the ZWO ASI 1600mm Pro TEC. I am new in monochrome imaging and am going through that learning curve, but the results are looking pretty good.
The Andromeda Galaxy is our galactic neighbor being about 2.5 million light-years away and consists of about 1 trillion stars, as compared to about 250 billion stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy. You can see this galaxy with the unaided eye in dark skies as a fuzzy looking star high in the NE by 7 pm in early November and high overhead around midnight. You can also see the companion galaxies M110 (Upper right) and M32 (Lower right from the center).
Telescope: Orion ED80T CF w/ 0.8x field Reducer
Camera settings:
ZWO ASI 1600mm ... Gain: 139, offset: 20
Subframes: 180 minutes
Dark, Flat, and Dark Flat frames used
Captured using N.I.N.A.
Stacked in Deep SkyStacker
Post Processed in PixInsight & Photoshop CC
It's More Than Just the Telescope:
The Orion ED80T CF telescope, which is a 3.1" refractor.
As you can see, it is just more than the telescope needed to produce such imagery. The many accessories include a guild scope and camera, anti-dew strips, the field reducer, the equatorial electronic mount, the camera, electronic filter wheel, and auto focus motor.
All the connections for the telescope are linked to my desktop computer inside via the 4 port USB extender box using a cat6 cable.
Earlier views of the Andromeda Galaxy:September 2019
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