The Andromeda galaxy fills the frame and a little bit more in this image from Abiquiu Lake, NM. Equipment: SBIG STF-8300c Software Bisque MyT Mount Stellarvue SVQ100 Astrograph Refractor, 580mm @ f/5.8 Unguided Software: Pixinsight Commercial Version 1.8 Lightroom CC Light Frames: 32 x 360 secs (3 hrs 12 mins) Dark Frames: 20 x 360 secs (2 hrs) M31, the largest galaxy ion our local group, at a distance of ~2.5 million light years, destined to collide with our own Milky Way galaxy in about 4 billion years or so (give or take.) One of the absolute farthest things to view with the naked eye, the core can be seen under moderately dark skies. More info found here (courtesy of Wikipedia): The Andromeda Galaxy (/ænˈdrɒmɨdə/), also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, is a spiral galaxy approximately 780 kiloparsecs (2.5 million light-years) from Earth.[4] It is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way and was often referred to as the Great Andromeda Nebula in older texts. It received its name from the area of the sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda, which was named after the mythological princess Andromeda. Being approximately 220,000 light years across, it is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which also contains the Milky Way, the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 44 other smaller galaxies. The Andromeda Galaxy is the most massive galaxy in the Local Group as well.[7] Despite earlier findings that suggested that the Milky Way contains more dark matter and could be the most massive in the grouping,[12]the 2006 observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that Andromeda contains one trillion (1012) stars:[9] at least twice the number of stars in the Milky Way, which is estimated to be 200–400 billion.[13]
This region of the sky, in the approximate middle of the constellation Cygnus, is brimming with clouds of ionized hydrogen. In this image I have located the bright star Sadr just out of the field of view to the lower right, and highlighted a butterfly shaped section of the nebula. But truthfully, it is hard to point to this section of the sky without getting some interesting and captivating shapes in your field of view. This was imaged in RGB and Hα, with the Hα mixed in to the red channel to add some sharpness and detail. In retrospect, I might have also captured OIII and made a 'proper' bi-color narrowband image out of this as well. Equipment: ZWO ASI1600MM-C Camera @ -15C and Gain:200 Offset:50 Software Bisque MyT Mount Stellarvue SVQ100 Astrograph Refractor, 580mm @ f/5.8 Innovations Foresight ONAG Software: Pixinsight Commercial Version 1.8 Lightroom CC Photoshop CC Innovations Foresight SkyGuard Light Frames: Hα: 39 x 600 secs (6 hrs 30 mins) Red:22 x 30 secs (11 mins) Green:22 x 30 secs (11 mins) Blue: 22 x 30 secs (11 mins) 7 hrs 3 mins total Dark Frames: 10 x 180 secs, RGB (30 mins) 10 x 600 secs, Hα(1 hr 40 mins) Bias Frames 60 Flat Frames 20 each filter Here is some more detail from Wikipedia: The Sadr Region (also known as IC 1318 or the Gamma Cygni Nebula) is the diffuse emission nebula surrounding Sadr (γ Cygni) at the center of Cygnus's cross. The Sadr Region is one of the surrounding nebulous regions; others include the Butterfly Nebula and the Crescent Nebula. It contains many dark nebulae in addition to the emission diffuse nebulae. Sadr itself has approximately a magnitude of 2.2. The nebulous regions around the region are also fairly bright.
Here is a famous object, called the Pelican Nebula (even though I think it looks more like a Pterodactyl :) ). This object is frequently imaged along with the North America Nebula, which is a brighter area of nebulosity out of the frame to the left and above. This is shot in narrowband and mixed using the SHO palette. Extra data was taken in the 2 fainter narrowband channels (OIII and SII) to mitigate noise. The stars were added from a very small amount of RGB data. The data was taken unguided. Equipment: ZWO ASI1600MM-C Camera @ -15C and Gain:200 Offset:50 Software Bisque MyT Mount Stellarvue SVQ100 Astrograph Refractor, 580mm @ f/5.8 Software: Pixinsight Commercial Version 1.8 Lightroom CC Photoshop CC Innovations Foresight SkyGuard Light Frames: Ha: 62 x 360 secs (6 hrs 12 mins) OIII: 81 x 360 secs (8 hrs 06 mins) SII: 84 x 360 secs (8 hrs 24 mins) Red:16 x 30 secs (8 mins) Green:16 x 30 secs (8 mins) Blue: 16 x 30 secs (8 mins) 23 hrs 06 mins total Dark Frames: 10 x 30 secs, RGB (5 mins) 10 x 360 secs, Ha,OIII,SII (3 hrs) Bias Frames 60 Flat Frames 20 each filter From Wikipedia: The Pelican Nebula (also known as IC 5070 and IC 5067[1]) is an H II region associated with the North America Nebula in the constellation Cygnus. The gaseous contortions of this emission nebula bear a resemblance to a pelican, giving rise to its name.[1] The Pelican Nebula is located nearby first magnitude star Deneb, and is divided from its more prominent neighbor, the North America Nebula, by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust. The Pelican is much studied because it has a particularly active mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds.
