Astrophotography by Keith B. Quattrocchi


M31:  The Andromeda Galaxy
Barred Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda
​LRGB Image

Copyright 2022
Keith B Quattrocchi and Bray Falls

Image Acquisition Information  
                    
Telescope: 16" RCOS Richey Chretien Telescope (ion milled at f/9) 
Camera: ZWO Full Frame Back Illuminated CMOS ASI 6200 MM
Guiding: Starlight Xpress AO with UltraStar Autoguiding Camera (AO control using maxim DL software).
Filters: Astrodon LRBG, H-alpha, S-II and OIII Filters
Acquisition Programs: NINA, The SkyX, PHD2, PWI4
Processing Programs: PixInsight, RC Astro, CCDStack, Photoshop CS4
Date: Data processed on December 15, 2022.  Data acquisition:  November and December of 2022                            
Time:  33 hours (10 minute exposures) for each of RGB, for a total of 159 hours.   This image required the the integration of 25 panel mosaics.   The processing was performed by Bray Falls.       
              
Image Information:  The M31 galaxy is the Andromeda Galaxy, a large barred spiral galaxy and the closest major galaxy to our own Milky Way. It is the largest member of our Local Group of galaxies and is visible to the naked eye as a faint, fuzzy patch of light in the night sky.  It is a massive galaxy, estimated to contain about one trillion stars, at least twice the number in the Milky Way.  It is 2.5 million light-years away from Earth.

Processing Information: Processing and mosiac integration performed by Bray Falls.  These RGB images were obtained using AstroDon filters.  The RGB images were batch processed (calibrated, registered, normalized and integrated) in PixInsignt.   Further stretching, high pass filtering and background smoothing was performed with Adobe Photoshop CS/4 and PixInsight.