M31 - The Great Galaxy in Andromeda
Copyright 2001 Hap Griffin
M31 is the famous Andromeda Galaxy. It is our closest neighbor galaxy in space, which, along with our own Milky Way galaxy, the great spiral galaxy M33 and M31's small companion galaxies, M32 and M110 (seen here as fuzzy patches below and just above M31) form what is known as our Local Group. At a distance of 2.9 million light years, it is the most distant object visible to the naked eye. Even so, it takes a keen eye and a dark night to spot it clearly. Skies must have been much clearer and darker in past ages, since M31 was known to the Persians as early as 905 AD. It also appears on a Dutch star map circa 1500 AD. It has an apparent diameter of 3 degrees...6 times the width of the full moon.
M31 is nearly twice the size of our Milky Way at 200,000 light years in diameter. However, with an estimated mass of 300 to 400 billion suns, it is not as dense as our galaxy.
Date/Location:
August 21, 2001 Griffin/Hunter
Observatory Bethune, SC
Instrument: Nikon FM w/ 200mmTokina zoom lens @ 200mm
Focal Ratio: f4
Guiding: Manual through LX-200, camera piggyback
Conditions: Visually clear, but with moderate high level water
vapor
Weather: 65 F, Still wind
Film: Kodak Elite Chrome 200
Exposure: 1 x 30 minutes
Filters: None
Processing: Finished in Photoshop 5