Camera: Fuji X-T1
Exposure: 30 sec.
Aperture: f/1.2
Focal Length: 56mm (84mm equivalent)
ISO: 3,200
This image is a single 30 second exposure, made with the Fuji X-T1 of M31, Andromeda on a very quiet and dark morning at 3am. You can see a full resolution jpg of the image here, made effectively right out of the camera.
We forget what the sky looks like until we venture out to one of the increasingly rare places with little light pollution, but it is an important journey to make. Looking at just this image, much less sitting under a complete sky reveals literally hundreds of millions of stars which makes me feel very small just thinking of the scope.
Is there another visible spiral galaxy on the middle left side of Andromeda? What’s the name of it? There are also more spiral galaxies that are hard to catch.
Turns out there are a bunch of satellite galaxies of M31: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Andromeda%27s_satellite_galaxies
I’ve been lurking on your blog for the past few months. I figure it’s time I show some appreciation for your photography haha. This is a great shot, keep up the good work!
Thank you Michael!
Great shot! I’ve had M31 on my list for a long time, planning to capture through my Celestron 11″ …. but life interrupts… I hadn’t thought to try your approach.
That Celestron should make for some gorgeous imagery. Do you have it on an equatorial mount?
The C-11 is on an Az-El mount, so I’m limited to relatively short exposures. The scope has been stored in the garage since I moved last Oct, so that is one of my projects in the next few months. I’ve thought of getting a wedge for it, but think I’d be better off getting an new GEM mount. We’ll see.
I’ve been waiting for an auto-tracking auto-guiding mount to show up…
I’m not sure I know what you mean? My C-11 mount is auto-tracking and has an auto-guide capability, which many seem to use to advantage (I haven’t). Being on an az-el mount, it has a field rotation effect for long exps, but it tracks the central object well. On a wedge, making it an equitorial mount, the field rotation goes away. Of course, you’re left with some tracking imperfections (alignment, periodic gear error, flexure). The GEMs seem to have a much better performance for astro-photos. There are a lot of examples on flickr (all weel beyond my capability). http://www.pk3.org/Astro/index.htm?astrophoto_mount_errors.htm
I should do a little homework then to see what is in the market. Have not looked in a long while.
Celestron and Meade are the primary Schmidt Cassegranian Telescope (SCT) mfrs for large aperture scopes, I think. Some high quality ($$$s) refractors are out there also (e.g. Williams Optics). There’s a variety of German Equatorial Mounts available for mounting a Celestron or Meade tube…. Here are some websites.:
http://www.celestron.com/
http://www.meade.com/
https://www.astronomics.com/celestron-advanced-vx-german-equatorial-telescope-mount_p20045.aspx
http://www.cloudynights.com/page/index.html
http://www.scopestuff.com/index.html
http://starizona.com/acb/
http://admaccessories.com/default.htm
http://www.williamoptics.com/telescopes/telescopes_main.php
http://www.buytelescopes.com/
http://www.telescope.com/
The prices can get eye-watering…. ;-)