One of the closest spiral galaxies to the Milky Way.
| M31 Andromeda Galaxy | |
|---|---|
| R.A. | 00h 42m 59.573s (2000.0) |
| Dec. | +41deg; 17' 57.47" (2000.0) |
| Apparent Size | 189.1' x 61.7' |
| Radial Velocity | -299 km/s |
| Magnitude | +3.47 |
| Distance | 2.9 million LY |
| Group of Galaxies | |
| Other IDs | M31 NGC 224 PGC 2557 UGC 454,MCG 7-2-16 |
First calibration shots of new ed80. Only 89 x 20 sec sub frames ( before the clouds rolled ) in of the clouds within m31.Pinpoint stars and lovely cloud detail has demonstrated the ed80 to be an excellant widefield imager. More to come!
| Scope | Skywatcher ED80 |
| Mount | EQ6 skyscan unguided |
| Exposure | 89 x 20sec unguided |
| Post-processing | stacked,d.framed and aligned in AA3, mild ddp. |
| Filters | TT IR |
| Camera | Starlight Express hx516 with ICX424AL chip and 0.5 Focal reducer. |
| Location | Claines Top Observatory |
| Date | 3rd August 2005 |
Test image through a 135mm canon FD lens. I had to half close the iris as the stars get pinched when using full aperture. I don't think the lens was designed for astrophotography!
| Scope | canon 135mm FD telephoto lens |
| Mount | EQ6 skyscan guided through mn56 with sxv guidehead. |
| Exposure | 60 x 120 sec guided, binned 2x2 |
| Post-processing | stacked and aligned in AA4, mild star bloat, no dark frame. |
| Filters | Toshiba 58mm SL-C IR lens. |
| Camera | sxv-h9. |
| Location | Claines Top Observatory |
| Date | 26th October 2006 |
This is an average stacked shot, displaying the path the object has taken.
www.mgnastro.org/gifs/M31120secIR001.fit
and
www.mgnastro.org/gifs/M31120secIR060.fit
Ra , Dec, astrometry & photometry of the objects ( no. 16 and 17 ) can be found at this screenshot here .
