The Andromeda Galaxy

I know there are lots of great astrophotographers out there with large telescopes in their own observatories and fancy dedicated astro-oriented CCD cameras. At this point in my life, I don’t have the funds to have a setup like that or the time to dedicate to that type of astrophotography.

However, I do have some equipment and I like seeing how far I can push it. Tonight I went for the Andromeda Galaxy. The equipment included a Canon 60D, I used the EF-S 55-250mm zoom lens, a wireless intervalometer, and an iOptron SkyTracker.  It was a little tough to find the galaxy at first when I was shooting at 250mm so I backed off to 55mm to get a wider field of view. The wider field of view made it much easier to get my first pic.

Once I found the galaxy, I was able to get a couple of pics at 250mm. My alignment wasn’t perfect tonight so on the longest exposure (1 minute) you might notice a little star trailing.

In these images, you can see another small galaxy above the Andromeda Galaxy. The smaller galaxy is a companion to Andromeda, M110.  Slightly below and to the right of the galaxy is a bright object. This would be M32, another companion of M31. If you look closely, you can see some dust lanes, especially right above the nucleus.

I think with practice I can do better, but I am generally pleased with the first attempts at capturing the Andromeda Galaxy. Even if you have relatively modest equipment, it’s worth going out and seeing what you can capture.

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