Greg Erianne managed to capture this staggering shot of the Andromeda Galaxy with his SVX90T. This barred spiral galaxy is approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth. Being the nearest major galaxy to our Milky Way, the Andromeda is expected to collide with our galaxy over the next 4 to 5 billion years. This merger could potentially form a giant elliptical galaxy, or a large lenticular galaxy. With an apparent magnitude of 3.4, the Andromeda is one of the brightest Messier objects, visible to the naked eye, from Earth on moonless nights.

According to Greg:

The Andromeda Galaxy is classified as a SA(s)b spiral galaxy (in the de Vaucouleurs–Sandage Extended Classification System), which is the designation for a large spiral galaxy with moderately well-defined spiral arms and a relatively prominent central bulge. Estimates put the number of stars it contains at about 1 trillion.

In the region of the outer blue spiral arms, the red ‘islands’ are red nebulae and are areas of active star formation captured in this image using a Ha 5nm narrowband filter.

Other Designations: Messier 31, NGC 224, UGC 454, PGC 2557, Bode 3.

Details:

Telescope: Stellarvue SVX90T Apochromatic Refractor @native 540mm fL
Mount: ZWO AM5 mount

Accessories:

• SV106 with ASI120mm mini
• ASIAir Plus
• ASI2600MCMC
• ZWO 5-position filter wheel

Filters:

• Antlia Triband RGB Ultra: 281x120s [9:22]
• Antlia Dual Narrowband 5nm Ha/OIII: 30x300s [2:30]

Software:

• PixInsight
• Adobe Photoshop

Total integration time: 11:52

Capture Dates: 9/2/2024 and 9/3/2024

References:

Wikipedia contributors. (2024, September 19). Andromeda Galaxy. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy

ThePlanets.org. (2024, March 27). Andromeda Facts: Facts about the Andromeda Galaxy. The Planets. https://theplanets.org/andromeda/