ScienceDownEast - ScienceDownEast Astrophotography - M031 Andromeda Galaxy (Latest images)

M31 Andromeda Galaxy with SeeStar S30 (M031 Andromeda Galaxy)

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:07:59 -0400

Click 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 Phase

Waning Gibbous 67%

Exposure

228 x 30 sec

Gain

200

Camera

ZWO SeeStar S30 [1920 x 1080] IMX662

Optics

ZWO SeeStar S30 EQ mode [Focal length 150, Aperture 30 mm, f/5]

Guiding

Controller

Filter

IR Cut

Location

Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.

Date

2025-12-09

Processing

Processed 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

M31 Andromeda Galaxy - re-processed with additional data (M031 Andromeda Galaxy)

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 12:06:40 -0300

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.”

Exposure

11x1200 sec + 18x900 sec + 54x600 sec + 354x300 sec = 2810 min total exposure (46.8 hours)

ISO

800

Camera

Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]

Optics

Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length

Filter

Triad Ultra Quad Band

Guiding

Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope

Controller

Images taken using Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)

Location

Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.

Date

Around 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

Andromeda Galaxy M31 (M031 Andromeda Galaxy)

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:50:04 -0300

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.

Exposure

15@300 sec (1.25 hours)

ISO

800

Camera

Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]

Optics

Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length

Filter

Triad Ultra Quad Band

Guiding

Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope

Controller

Images taken using Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)

Location

Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.

Date

2021-09-04

PixInsight Processing

WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script

Dynamic Crop

DynamicBackground Extractor

MultiscaleLinearTransform

HistogramTransform

CurvesTransformation

Further tweaking in Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025

M032 Andromeda Galaxy (M031 Andromeda Galaxy)

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 12:56:30 -0400

Exposure

329@300 sec (27.4 hours)

ISO

3200

Camera

Nikon Z7 [8856 x 5504]

Optics

Skywatcher Esprit 120mm Refractor, 840 mm focal length

Filter

Triad Ultra Quad Band

Guiding

Phd2 using a ZWO 224MC on an Orion 60x240mm Guide scope

Controller

Images taken using Kstars on an Odroid-N2 (Raspberry Pi clone)

Location

Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.

Date

2021-11-06...

PixInsight Processing

WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script

Dynamic Crop

DynamicBackground Extractor

MultiscaleLinearTransform

HistogramTransform

CurvesTransformation

Further tweaking in Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025

M031 Andromeda Galaxy (M031 Andromeda Galaxy)

Tue, 16 Oct 2018 13:56:32 -0300

M31 The Andromeda Galaxy
Exposure 166@ 300 sec sub frames
ISO 1600
Camera Nikon D800 [7360 x 4912]
Optics Prime focus of a 10" Meade SCT f/10, 2500 mm focal length on a Celestron CGEM DX mount.
Location Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date 2018-10-14
Processing Captured using the camera intervalometer. Processed in Pixinsight and tweaked in Lightroom.

Date: March 26, 2025