ABOUT THE IMAGE:

DATE/TIME:  The evening of Sept. 26th and morning of the 27th 2008

CAMERA:  Canon XSI, 450D

TELESCOPE:  Orion 100mm ED @ F/9

ISO SETTING:  800/1600

EXPOSURES:  10 total

EXPOSURE LENGTH:   5x 10min., 2x 5min.

TOTAL EXPOSURE LENGTH:  1hr

CAPTURE SOFTWARE:  MaximDL

STACKING SOFTWARE:  Deep Sky Stacker

PROCESSING:  Photoshop CS3

M31, also designated NGC 224, is the nearest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way.  It is located approximately 2,500,000 light-years away in the constellation Andromeda and is often refered to as "The Andromeda Galaxy."  M31 is the largest galaxy of our local group of galaxies which consists of, M31, "the Andromeda galaxy," M33, "the Triangulum galaxy," our own Milky Way galaxy, and about 30 other smaller galaxies.  It is visible as a faint smudge on a moonless night and is one of the farthest objects visible to the naked eye.  When photographed through a telescope, it appears six times as wide as the full moon, but with the naked eye, only the brighter central region is visible.

Also note the two smaller satellite galaxies interacting with Andromeda, M110, (upper left) and M32, (lower right.)

http://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/Messier_31

ABOUT THE IMAGE:

DATE/TIME:  The evening of August 24th and morning of the 25th, 2009

CAMERA:  Canon XSI, 450D

TELESCOPE:  Orion 100mm ED refractor @ F/9

ISO SETTING:  800

EXPOSURES:  36

EXPOSURE LENGTH:  5min

TOTAL EXPOSURE LENGTH:  3 hours

SUBTRACTIONS:  20 dark frames and 10 bias frames

CAPTURE SOFTWARE:  MaximDL

STACKING SOFTWARE:  Deep Sky Stacker

PROCESSING:  Photoshop CS3