M31 the andromeda galaxy,probably my longest exposure ever

[moonshinegnomie]

Over 14 hours of data using 2 different filters to bring out details

[Dave Bowman]

1. It's beautiful!

[True Dough]

2. Was this a drive-by shooting?

It's a little out of the way.



Nicely done!

[littlemissmartypants]

9. 👍🌞

[brer cat]

3. Spectatular!

[FSogol]

4. Great shot, but it needs the "You Are Here" notation for those of us that get lost easily.

[ThoughtCriminal]

30. Here you go

[Foolacious]

43. You aren't anywhere in this shot.

[femmedem]

5. Wow!

Congratulations! You must be so proud of this image.

[moonshinegnomie]

6. it going up on my wall. (once i find room for it )

[Marcuse]

7. Awesome. And it's getting closer and closer.

[AZ8theist]

20. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the collision!!!

[calimary]

8. NICE!

Really makes you stop and think. And wonder…

[RexLipton]

10. Amazing'

Last edited Wed Oct 9, 2024, 12:14 PM - Edit history (1)

Simply amazing!

You must have a very smooth mount!!

[moonshinegnomie]

15. i use a zwo am5 mount

[RexLipton]

39. That's some serious hardware!

[moonshinegnomie]

40. I plan on bigger equipment

The mount is more important for astrophotography.
Unlike visual work where minor wiggles are ok astrophotography doesn’t really have tolerance for it. I really want a 4-5” refractor around 5-60mm of focal length and fast
Plus a dedicated Astro cam. And better filters and….

[Nululu]

11. Wonderful

Amazing work.

[Butterflylady]

12. The universe is so beautiful.

[Seinan Sensei]

13. Whoa

Impressive at every level

[usonian]

14. I took a photo of that patch of sky for about 10 seconds.

I don’t have the patience.
I considered a career in astronomy.
Decided that getting paid was a better option.

ENJOY. HAVE A BLAST.
Awesome to share these works.
✨🔭

Added a link to my 20mm camera lens photo
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1036136930

[moonshinegnomie]

17. ive automated a lot of the data aquisition

once i set up i can program a little device i have to take x number of exposures of 5 length. then once it starts shooting i can ignore it until its done x hours later. In the morning I take a series of calibration exposures and then download the whole group onto my computer for processing. thats where the real work is.
stacking all these frames (over 300) took almost 200gb of hard drive space and about 4 hours for my computer to process. then i work on bringing out teh details

[usonian]

19. That's WAY more than I could handle. The 10 seconds and a tiny amount of processing.

But I get a tiny fuzzy patch instead of your great photo.

Fantastic skill and patience.

[iluvtennis]

16. As posters said above - just BEAUTIFUL! Thanks for sharing. n/t

[Laha]

18. I wonder if there is anyone looking back at us from there

I sure hope so, would be fun to meet them

[Foolacious]

44. It'll take a while before we can hang out.

The Andromeda Galaxy is 2.5 million light years from us. You could fit about 25 Milky Way galaxies between us and them.

[pjyonemura]

21. Stellar

Stellar photo. Thank you for posting it.

[samsingh]

22. Beautiful photo!

[Hekate]

23. When I was a kid, I used to long to go to those places...

Thank you

[moonshinegnomie]

28. i working on a way

i just have to figure out how to control matter anti matter reactions using dilithium crystals

[Picaro]

24. Incredible work

Stunning pic.

[majdrfrtim]

25. Spectacular!!

What a triumph!!

Thank you for sharing this.

[SheltieLover]

26. Gorgeous!

TY for sharing with us!

[OAITW r.2.0]

27. Reason 5,438,322 as to why I love DU.

You get to read great posts like this.

[Phoenix61]

29. WOW! That's amazing! nt

[Clouds Passing]

31. Amazing photo!

[flying_wahini]

32. Oh my! What a spectacular picture.

How dark sky does it need to be to take this?
I know we probably can’t see with the naked eye, can we?

[moonshinegnomie]

38. its naked eye visible in moderatly dark skies

it will appear as just a smudge though.
as for taking the picture it can be done in pretty light polluted areas. theres a scale that can be used for how dark teh sky is called teh bortle scale. it goes from 1 (darkest skies in the middle of nowhere like big bend national park) to 9 ( a bright urban area like in the downtown area of a major city)
my skies are bortle 7+ mIm in the first suburb north of austin texas and right by the suburbs downtown area

[padfun]

33. Is that smudge above the galaxy a satellite galaxy?

Or is it with-in the Milky Way?

[moonshinegnomie]

37. its a satellite

its M110. the bright spot just below andromeda is another satellite M32

[niyad]

34. So very beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

By the way, I love that adorable logo on your photos.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

35. Quite an accomplishment. Well done! . . . . nt

[surfered]

36. Wow! Thank you for sharing.

[Beartracks]

41. Such a long exposure, even the Gnome Galaxy is visible in the lower right.

[SpankMe]

42. 2.5 million year old light!

Doesn't look a day over 1 million!

[DemonGoddess]

45. That's beautiful!

[LymphocyteLover]

46. Spectacular! Congrats!