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]
NGC 281, affectionately referred to as the Pacman Nebula, is an emission nebula at an estimated distance of ~9200 light years, in the constellation of Cassiopeia. Equipment: ZWO ASI1600MM-C Camera @ -20C 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: Ha: 41 x 360 secs ( 4 hrs 6 mins) OIII: 37 x 360 secs (3 hrs 42 mins) SII: 40 x 360 secs (4 hrs) Red: 24 x 30 secs (12 mins) Green: 22 x 30 secs (11 mins) Blue: 23 x 30 secs (11 mins 30 secs) 12 hrs 22 mins 30 secs total Dark Frames: 10 x 60 secs, RGB (30 mins) 10 x 360 secs, Ha,OIII,SII (3 hrs) Bias Frames 100 Flat Frames 20 each filter More details from Wikipedia: NGC 281, IC 11 or Sh2-184 is a bright emission nebula and part of an H II region in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia and is part of the Milky Way's Perseus Spiral Arm. This 20×30 arcmin sized nebulosity is also associated with open cluster IC 1590, several Bok globules and the multiple star, B 1. It collectively forms Sh2-184,[3] spanning over a larger area of 40 arcmin.[4] A recent distance from radio parallaxes of water masers at 22 GHz made during 2014 is estimated it lies 2.82±0.20 kpc. (9200 ly.) from us.[5] Colloquially, NGC 281 is also known as the Pacman Nebula for its resemblance to the video game character. Edward Emerson Barnard discovered the nebula in August 1883, describing it as "a large faint nebula, very diffuse." Multiple star 'B 1' or β 1 was later discovered by S. W. Burnham, whose bright component is identified as the highly luminous O6 spectral class star, HD 5005 or HIP 4121. It consists of an 8th-magnitude primary with four companions at distances between 1.4 and 15.7 arcsec. There has been no appreciable change in this quintuple system since the first measures were made in 1875.
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.
