There’s something truly awe-inspiring about capturing the Andromeda galaxy in a photograph. The sheer scale and beauty of this celestial wonder can leave anyone breathless, and photographing it can be a truly rewarding experience. The Andromeda galaxy is located a staggering 2.5 million light-years away from Earth, making it the closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way. With swirling arms of stars and dust that span over 220,000 light-years across, it’s been a source of inspiration for astronomers and photographers alike, and capturing it in a photograph can be an experience like no other.
Messier 31 – The Andromeda Galaxy
For years I have looked at such photos in absolute awe, thinking they were taken from telescopes in orbit. I had no idea it was possible to capture images of the universe from home, let alone my back garden. The image above is made from data collected over two years: Summer 2021 and 2022. Located in the Andromeda constellation, this galaxy is best photographed between September and February.
Processing
This image was processed using Pixinsight – a dedicated image processing suite for astrophotography. The tools available in Pixinsight are tailored to bring out faint details in astro-photographs and are made to do so in a way that is easy to use, but granular and controllable.
Within Pixinsight, the Weighted Batch Pre Processing tool was used to ingest the sub-exposures and calibration frames for each night. WBPP then performs the stacking process, and also performs heavy analysis on each frame to only stack those of the highest quality (based on star size, star count, contrast etc..). WBPP also performs cosmetic corrections on each frame to handle any hot pixels, as well as performing kappa-sigma clipping (the removal of airplane and satellite streaks across certain sub-frames).
An initial background extraction was done to remove any gradients, followed by colour calibration, de-noising, and removal of the stars.
The galaxy was then stretched and processed separately from the stars, allowing for faint dust lanes and nebulosity to be revealed without blowing out the shape and colour of the stars. The range selection tool was used to create a mask to isolate the galactic core from the outer dust lanes. The stars were then recombined, with a few final touches in Adobe Camera Raw.
Object type: Spiral galaxy
Other names: M31, Messier 31, NGC 224
Constellation: Andromeda
RA (right ascension): 00h 42m 44.3s
DEC (declination): +41° 16′ 9″
Magnitude: 3,44
Angular size: 178 × 63 arcmin
Age: 10 billion years
Locked onto M31 – Circled in Red
Captured using an iPhone 12 Pro, the Andromeda Galaxy can be seen circled in red. From Earth, it looks like nothing more than another star in the sky. Pay a little more attention and you may be able to make out some airy whispers of its galactic disks. But the power of astrophotography allows us to see it an all it’s beauty and power.
HDR Exposures
M31 is notoriously tricky to photograph. The long exposures used to capture the galaxies discs and dust lanes often blow out its core, resulting in poor colour and lost details. To truly capture the galaxy in all its beauty, an HDR approach should be taken. This involves combining exposures of multiple lengths. In this case, I used the following exposures and equipment:
Telescope: William Optics Zenithstar 73 Apo Refractor
Mount: EQ5 / EQ6-R Pro
Camera: ASI 294 MC Pro
Exposures: 10 hours total: 8 hours x 2 mins & 2 hours x 30 seconds.
Tips and Advice
- The Andromeda Galaxy is large – very large, almost the size of 4 full moons in the night sky. The target is best suited for a wide-field refractor, around 500mm or less.
- You can capture this target with a simple DSLR and lens. The object is so large that you may not even need a star tracker. Simply adjust the camera’s position to keep it in the field of view every few exposures.
- Dark skies help a lot. If you can, try and travel to darker skies to capture your images. The less light pollution in your sub-exposures, the easier it will be to pull out the faint details around the outer dust lanes of the galaxy.
- When processing your image, make sure to use layer masking. This process involves masking off certain areas of the galaxy so they aren’t over blown whilst highlights are teased out in the darker parts of the image – something very fitting for a target with such high dynamic range.
Photographing the Andromeda galaxy is not just about capturing a beautiful image, though. It’s also about the sense of wonder and awe that comes from contemplating our place in the universe. Looking at a photograph of the Andromeda galaxy can remind us of the vastness of space and the infinite possibilities that lie beyond our own planet.
In a world where we’re often consumed by the day-to-day stresses of life, photographing the Andromeda galaxy can be a powerful reminder of the beauty and mystery that surrounds us. It can inspire us to explore new frontiers, both in space and in our own lives.
So, if you’re a photographer or an astronomy enthusiast looking for a new challenge, consider photographing the Andromeda galaxy. It may require some effort and patience, but the end result is a truly inspiring image that can remind us of the limitless possibilities that exist beyond our own world.
Ancient Canvas Photography 