The Great Galaxy in Andromeda (aka M31) is visually the largest and brightest galaxy that can be see without optical aid outside of our own Milkyway galaxy. I photographed it when I went out for the evening to watch and try to photograph the Geminid meteor shower. The light from the Andromeda galaxy has been traveling for well over two million years to get here. This photograph was taken on my first time out to do this type of astrophotography with my Canon EOS 20D camera.
I took this photograph with my Canon EOS 20D digital camera on a Losmandy G-11 equatorial telescope mount near Florence Junction, Arizona at 9:36pm the evening of 13 December 2004. The version you see here was made by stacking three images to reduce the random camera noise. The exposure of each image was 60 seconds at f/2.8 with the camera set for ISO 800 in RAW mode. The lens was a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM at the 200mm position with the image stabilization turned off. Adobe Photoshop CS was used to perform the RAW conversion and image processing. Photograph by Rick Scott.
Updated: 24 December 2004