Milan Hutera
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Hello everybody.
For the next trip to outer space, let's take a closer look at the Queen of the Fall sky. Andromeda Galaxy or Messier 31 is the closest major galaxy to our Milky Way. Even though its 2.5 million light years away, it is so big it doesn't entirely fit into the field of view of telescopes longer than about 450-500mm focal length. I had to find a composition that would look good in our 1000mm telescope. I settled for a crop that shows central portion of Andromeda galaxy and her two satellite galaxies - Messier 32 (the smaller yellow sphere just "above" Andromeda) and Messier 110 in the bottom left corner.
I took around 7 hours worth of data in September and October 2021, however, I elected not to use more than 4 hours from September because of "ugly starshapes" in two of the corners. The connection between the camera and telescope is a finicky affair. The distances between the parts of the imaging train has to be precise, otherwise there are problems. In our case - the elongated star shapes with ugly fringing. And unlike most 'tubers, I do seem to care a lot about starshapes  . The result is a bit noisier image, but since this is just under 3 hours of data, I'm happy with it (for now).
I hope you'll enjoy and Happy Holidays!
Tech: Captured by Skywatcher Newtonian telescope (1000mm, f5), with Baader Coma Corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 Pro Equatorial Mount, guided by the ZWO 120mm mini guide camera. The main imaging camera is the QHY 168C - a 16 mpix color cooled astrophotography camera cooled to -5C. A Baader Neodymium Moon & Skyglow filter was used to block some of the (inevitable) light pollution. I took around 7 hours worth of 3 minute exposures, however, for this version I used just under 3 hours worth of exposures for this version.
https://milanhutera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/M31-Andromeda-galaxy-2021.jpg
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