- M 31 Andromeda Galaxy
M 31 (NGC 224) is arguably the most famous astronomical object viewed by amatuer astronomers. This grand spiral galaxy is located in the constellation Andromeda and is easily visible to the naked eye (visual magnitude 3.4) even under conditions with some light pollution. The Persian scholar Abdal-Rahman Al Sufi is usually credited as the first to describe this object. Around 964 AD, Al Sufi described it as a "small cloud" in Andromeda. Charles Messier observed it several times around 1764 before including it as No. 31 in his list. M 31 is located at a distance of 2.6 million LY from us. Our Milky Way Galaxy and M 31 are on a collision course and are expected to collide and merge in around 4 billion years.
My image also shows the two small satellite galaxies of M 31, M 32 (NGC 221) and M 110 (NGC 205). M 32 is the compact elliptical galaxy slightly below the plane of M 31 in my image, while M 110 is the more elongated elliptical galaxy riding above M 31. Both of these small galaxies have played a role in disrupting the normal spiral structure of M 31.
M 31 is too big to fit into a single image frame using the SOCO imaging system. To produce the image shown above, I mosaiced five separate color composite images of the galaxy, with each color composite image created from six 4-minute exposures in the red, green and blue spectral bands.
|
Return to SOCO Image Gallery