00-M31-CaveRunLake, Morehead,Ky-4000-WP-Master

The Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years (2.4×1019 km) from Earth in the Andromeda constellation. Also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, it is often referred to as the Great Andromeda Nebula in older texts. The Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest spiral galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy, but not the closest galaxy overall. It gets its name from the area of the sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda, which was named after the mythological princess Andromeda. The Andromeda Galaxy is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which also contains the Milky Way, the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 30 other smaller galaxies. Our sister galaxy is the cosmos. Side note: Edger A Poe gave us the word "galaxy".

Taken with a 60 year old Pentax Lens, 200mm, f/4 but shot at f/5.6. The lens has a few problems and needed to be stopped down one stop to give a little better, rounder star. T2i, 1600asa. 7 image of very exposures stacked. Not a bad image with a short 200mm lens. Older GP Vixen. None guided. Longest exposure was 6 minutes. Shortest 1.5 minutes.

4 of 1.5 minutes, 2 of 2.5 minutes, one 6 minutes. 17 minutes total exposure. DSS of course and cleanup in Light Room 4.....



Rikk DarkMoon DarkMoonPhoto DarkMoonPhotography aka 19.5