<![CDATA[ScienceDownEast - ScienceDownEast Astrophotography - M031 Andromeda Galaxy (Latest images)]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto Sat, 08 Aug 2026 05:30:04 -0300 Sat, 08 Aug 2026 05:30:04 -0300 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Zenphoto RSS Generator <![CDATA[M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) (M031 Andromeda Galaxy)]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=Stacked_228_mosaic_M+31_30.0s_IRCUT_20251209-215320_v2.jpg M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)Click on the image to view it at full resolution, then click again for actual size.

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31, NGC 224) is the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way, located about 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It is a large spiral galaxy, with a disk spanning roughly 200,000 light-years or more, making it substantially larger than our own galaxy. Seen from Earth at a steep inclination rather than face-on, M31 displays sweeping dust lanes across its disk and a bright central bulge, and is one of the few galaxies visible to the naked eye as a faint smudge under dark skies. Its satellite galaxies M32 and M110 are typically visible in the same wide-field frame. M31 and the Milky Way are gravitationally bound and expected to merge in roughly four to five billion years.

[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy]

Moon PhaseWaning Gibbous
CameraSeestar S30
Optics150 mm focal length, f/5, 30 mm aperture (APO triplet)
Date2025-12-09
PixInsight Processing
Gradient Merge Mosaic
Debayer
Fast Rotation (x2)
Dynamic Crop
BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution)
GraXpert (gradient removal)
Image Integration
Drizzle Integration
StarXTerminator (star removal)
PixelMath
NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)

Date: July 28, 2026 ]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=Stacked_228_mosaic_M+31_30.0s_IRCUT_20251209-215320_v2.jpg Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0400 <![CDATA[M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) (M031 Andromeda Galaxy)]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=Stacked_228_mosaic_M+31_30.0s_IRCUT_20251209-215320_v3.jpg M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)Click on the image to view it at full resolution, then click again for actual size.

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31, NGC 224) is the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way, located about 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It is a large spiral galaxy, with a disk spanning roughly 200,000 light-years or more, making it substantially larger than our own galaxy. Seen from Earth at a steep inclination rather than face-on, M31 displays sweeping dust lanes across its disk and a bright central bulge, and is one of the few galaxies visible to the naked eye as a faint smudge under dark skies. Its satellite galaxies M32 and M110 are typically visible in the same wide-field frame. M31 and the Milky Way are gravitationally bound and expected to merge in roughly four to five billion years.

[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy]

Moon PhaseWaning Gibbous
CameraSeestar S30
Optics150 mm focal length, f/5, 30 mm aperture (APO triplet)
Date2025-12-09
PixInsight Processing
Gradient Merge Mosaic
Debayer
Fast Rotation (x2)
Dynamic Crop
BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution)
GraXpert (gradient removal)
Image Integration
Drizzle Integration
StarXTerminator (star removal)
PixelMath
NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)

Date: July 28, 2026 ]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=Stacked_228_mosaic_M+31_30.0s_IRCUT_20251209-215320_v3.jpg Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0400 <![CDATA[M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) (M031 Andromeda Galaxy)]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=M31_BIN-1_2160x3840_EXPOSURE-60.00s_FILTER-IRCUT_RGB_GHS.jpg M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)Click on the image to view it at full resolution, then click again for actual size.

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31, NGC 224) is the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way, located about 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It is a large spiral galaxy, with a disk spanning roughly 200,000 light-years or more, making it substantially larger than our own galaxy. Seen from Earth at a steep inclination rather than face-on, M31 displays sweeping dust lanes across its disk and a bright central bulge, and is one of the few galaxies visible to the naked eye as a faint smudge under dark skies. Its satellite galaxies M32 and M110 are typically visible in the same wide-field frame. M31 and the Milky Way are gravitationally bound and expected to merge in roughly four to five billion years.

[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy]

Total image time was 20 minutes.

Moon PhaseWaxing Crescent
CameraSeestar S30 Pro (4K Sony IMX585 sensor)
Optics160 mm focal length, f/5.3, 30 mm aperture (APO quadruplet)
FilterIRCUT
Binning1x1
Date2026-07-17
PixInsight Processing
Image Integration (x2)

Date: July 28, 2026 ]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=M31_BIN-1_2160x3840_EXPOSURE-60.00s_FILTER-IRCUT_RGB_GHS.jpg Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0300 <![CDATA[M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) (M031 Andromeda Galaxy)]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=Stacked_228_mosaic_M+31_30.0s_IRCUT_20251209-215320.jpg M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)Click on the image to view it at full resolution, then click again for actual size.

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31, NGC 224) is the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way, located about 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It is a large spiral galaxy, with a disk spanning roughly 200,000 light-years or more, making it substantially larger than our own galaxy. Seen from Earth at a steep inclination rather than face-on, M31 displays sweeping dust lanes across its disk and a bright central bulge, and is one of the few galaxies visible to the naked eye as a faint smudge under dark skies. Its satellite galaxies M32 and M110 are typically visible in the same wide-field frame. M31 and the Milky Way are gravitationally bound and expected to merge in roughly four to five billion years.

[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy]

Moon PhaseWaning Gibbous
CameraSeestar S30
Optics150 mm focal length, f/5, 30 mm aperture (APO triplet)
Date2025-12-09
PixInsight Processing
Gradient Merge Mosaic
Debayer
Fast Rotation (x2)
Dynamic Crop
BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution)
GraXpert (gradient removal)
Image Integration
Drizzle Integration
StarXTerminator (star removal)
PixelMath
NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)

Date: July 28, 2026 ]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=Stacked_228_mosaic_M+31_30.0s_IRCUT_20251209-215320.jpg Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0400 <![CDATA[M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) (M031 Andromeda Galaxy)]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=M31_MasterLight_IRCUT2_MAS.jpg M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)Click on the image to view it at full resolution, then click again for actual size.

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31, NGC 224) is the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way, located about 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It is a large spiral galaxy, with a disk spanning roughly 200,000 light-years or more, making it substantially larger than our own galaxy. Seen from Earth at a steep inclination rather than face-on, M31 displays sweeping dust lanes across its disk and a bright central bulge, and is one of the few galaxies visible to the naked eye as a faint smudge under dark skies. Its satellite galaxies M32 and M110 are typically visible in the same wide-field frame. M31 and the Milky Way are gravitationally bound and expected to merge in roughly four to five billion years.

[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy]

Total image time was 20 minutes.

Moon PhaseWaxing Crescent
CameraSeestar S30 Pro (4K Sony IMX585 sensor)
Optics160 mm focal length, f/5.3, 30 mm aperture (APO quadruplet)
FilterIRCUT
Binning1x1
Date2026-07-17
PixInsight Processing
Image Integration (x2)
Drizzle Integration
BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution)
Dynamic Crop
Gradient Correction
Spectrophotometric Color Calibration
NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)
Multiscale Adaptive Stretch
HDR Multiscale Transform

Date: July 28, 2026 ]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=M31_MasterLight_IRCUT2_MAS.jpg Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 -0300 <![CDATA[M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) (M031 Andromeda Galaxy)]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=Stacked_228_mosaic_M+31_30.0s_IRCUT_20251209-215320_v4v2.jpeg M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)Click on the image to view it at full resolution, then click again for actual size.

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31, NGC 224) is the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way, located about 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It is a large spiral galaxy, with a disk spanning roughly 200,000 light-years or more, making it substantially larger than our own galaxy. Seen from Earth at a steep inclination rather than face-on, M31 displays sweeping dust lanes across its disk and a bright central bulge, and is one of the few galaxies visible to the naked eye as a faint smudge under dark skies. Its satellite galaxies M32 and M110 are typically visible in the same wide-field frame. M31 and the Milky Way are gravitationally bound and expected to merge in roughly four to five billion years.

[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy]

Moon PhaseWaning Gibbous
CameraSeestar S30
Optics150 mm focal length, f/5, 30 mm aperture (APO triplet)
Date2025-12-09
PixInsight Processing
Gradient Merge Mosaic
Debayer
Fast Rotation (x2)
Dynamic Crop
BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution)
GraXpert (gradient removal)
Image Integration
Drizzle Integration
StarXTerminator (star removal)
PixelMath
NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)

Date: July 28, 2026 ]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=Stacked_228_mosaic_M+31_30.0s_IRCUT_20251209-215320_v4v2.jpeg Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0400 <![CDATA[M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) (M031 Andromeda Galaxy)]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=Stacked_228_mosaic_M+31_30.0s_IRCUT_20251209-215320_v4.jpg M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)Click on the image to view it at full resolution, then click again for actual size.

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31, NGC 224) is the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way, located about 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It is a large spiral galaxy, with a disk spanning roughly 200,000 light-years or more, making it substantially larger than our own galaxy. Seen from Earth at a steep inclination rather than face-on, M31 displays sweeping dust lanes across its disk and a bright central bulge, and is one of the few galaxies visible to the naked eye as a faint smudge under dark skies. Its satellite galaxies M32 and M110 are typically visible in the same wide-field frame. M31 and the Milky Way are gravitationally bound and expected to merge in roughly four to five billion years.

[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy]

Moon PhaseWaning Gibbous
CameraSeestar S30
Optics150 mm focal length, f/5, 30 mm aperture (APO triplet)
Date2025-12-09
PixInsight Processing
Gradient Merge Mosaic
Debayer
Fast Rotation (x2)
Dynamic Crop
BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution)
GraXpert (gradient removal)
Image Integration
Drizzle Integration
StarXTerminator (star removal)
PixelMath
NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)

Date: July 28, 2026 ]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=Stacked_228_mosaic_M+31_30.0s_IRCUT_20251209-215320_v4.jpg Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0400 <![CDATA[M31 Andromeda Galaxy with SeeStar S30 (M031 Andromeda Galaxy)]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=Stacked_228_mosaic_M-31_30.0s_IRCUT_20251209-215320_v4.jpg M31 Andromeda Galaxy with SeeStar S30Click on the image to view it at full resolution, then click again for actual size.

The M31 The Andromeda Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy and is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. It was originally named the Andromeda Nebula and is cataloged as Messier 31, M31, and NGC 224. Andromeda has a D25 isophotal diameter of about 46.56 kiloparsecs (152,000 light-years) and is approximately 765 kpc (2.5 million light-years) from Earth. The galaxy's name stems from the area of Earth's sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda, which itself is named after the princess who was the wife of Perseus in Greek mythology. The virial mass of the Andromeda Galaxy is of the same order of magnitude as that of the Milky Way, at 1 trillion solar masses (2.0×1042 kilograms). The mass of either galaxy is difficult to estimate with any accuracy, but it was long thought that the Andromeda Galaxy was more massive than the Milky Way by a margin of some 25% to 50%. However, this has been called into question by early-21st-century studies indicating a possibly lower mass for the Andromeda Galaxy and a higher mass for the Milky Way. The Andromeda Galaxy has a diameter of about 46.56 kpc (152,000 ly), making it the largest member of the Local Group of galaxies in terms of extension. [from Wikipedia]

Total image time was about 2 hours.

Moon PhaseWaning Gibbous 67%
Exposure228 x 30 sec
Gain200
CameraZWO SeeStar S30 [1920 x 1080] IMX662
OpticsZWO SeeStar S30 EQ mode [Focal length 150, Aperture 30 mm, f/5]
GuidingNA
ControllerNA
FilterIR Cut
LocationLower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date2025-12-09
ProcessingProcessed in PixInsight.
PixInsight Processing
WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script [ 1x drizzle ]
BlurXTerminator
GraXpert
NoiseXTerminator
StarXTerminator
Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch on both the stars and starless images
HDRMultiScaleTransform on the Starless image
PixelMath to recombine the images
CurveTransformation


Date: December 10, 2025 ]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=Stacked_228_mosaic_M-31_30.0s_IRCUT_20251209-215320_v4.jpg Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:07:59 -0400 <![CDATA[M31 Andromeda Galaxy - re-processed with additional data (M031 Andromeda Galaxy)]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=M31_Cuiv-lighter.jpg M31 Andromeda Galaxy - re-processed with additional data
Note: click on the image to view it at the full resolution of the uploaded image, then click again for actual size.

The Andromeda Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy and is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way and is cataloged as Messier 31. Andromeda has a diameter of about 152,000 light-years and is approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth. The galaxy's name stems from the area of Earth's sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda, which itself is named after the princess who was the wife of Perseus in Greek mythology The virial mass of the Andromeda Galaxy is of the same order of magnitude as that of the Milky Way, at 1 trillion solar masses (2.0×1042 kilograms). The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are expected to collide with each other in around 4–5 billion years, merging to potentially form a giant elliptical galaxy or a large lenticular galaxy. With an apparent magnitude of 3.4, the Andromeda Galaxy is among the brightest of the Messier objects, and is visible to the naked eye from Earth on moonless nights. Around the year 964 CE, the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi described the Andromeda Galaxy in his Book of Fixed Stars as a "nebulous smear" or "small cloud.”
Exposure11x1200 sec + 18x900 sec + 54x600 sec + 354x300 sec = 2810 min total exposure (46.8 hours)
ISO800
CameraNikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
OpticsSkywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length
FilterTriad Ultra Quad Band
GuidingPhd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope
ControllerImages taken using Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)
LocationLower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
DateAround 2021-09-04
PixInsight Processing
WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script
Dynamic Crop
GraXpert Background Extractor
SpectrophotometricColorCalibration
BlurXTerminator
NoiseXTerminator
HistogramTransform
StarXTerminator
On the starless image
HDRMultiScaleTransform
CurvesTranformation (RGB)
SCNR
FAME Script to create a galaxy mask
CurvesTransformation (increase Saturation of the galaxy)
CurvesTransformation (reduce Luminace of the background)
Pixelmath ~((~stars)*(~starless))
Further tweaking in Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025 ]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=M31_Cuiv-lighter.jpg Tue, 17 Sep 2024 12:06:40 -0300 <![CDATA[Andromeda Galaxy M31 (M031 Andromeda Galaxy)]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=masterLight_BIN-1_8256x5504_EXPOSURE-180.00s_FILTER-LPR_Lum_combined_RGB2.jpg Andromeda Galaxy M31
The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31 with its adjacent M32 and M110 galaxies (left and right), is a barred spiral galaxy. 2.5 million light-years from Earth and the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way.

Note: click on the image to view it at the full resolution of the uploaded image, then click again for actual size.

Exposure15@300 sec (1.25 hours)
ISO800
CameraNikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]
OpticsSkywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length
FilterTriad Ultra Quad Band
GuidingPhd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope
ControllerImages taken using Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)
LocationLower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date2021-09-04
PixInsight Processing
WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script
Dynamic Crop
DynamicBackground Extractor
MultiscaleLinearTransform
HistogramTransform
CurvesTransformation
Further tweaking in Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025 ]]> https://www.sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Galaxies/M31-Andromeda-Galaxy&image=masterLight_BIN-1_8256x5504_EXPOSURE-180.00s_FILTER-LPR_Lum_combined_RGB2.jpg Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:50:04 -0300