#messierobjects

The Andromeda Galaxy has a similar size and structure as our own galaxy. Its proximity, 2.5 million light-years, makes it easier to investigate than others more distant. The similarity helps us understand the colourful regions of gas and dust that we see up-close and nearby in our own galaxy.

We keep returning to photograph this target because it is beautiful, intriguing and certainly iconic. My goal this year is to combine new images with those previous to reveal the structure and locations of star-forming regions (H II regions) in the Andromeda Galaxy. Many of my photos are of star-forming regions nearby in our own galaxy. They fill my images with a brilliant pink tapestry. Seeing these regions from a distance helps us understand their overall structure. We find the telltale pink regions on the spines of the spiral arms.

This is an ensemble of 310 photos where each was a 3 minutes exposure (15 hours of astrophotography over 3 years). I combined 80 recent images with 160 images from autumn 2024, both sets using the Optolong L-Pro filter to create an interim image that captures the fine details. I then photographically merged this detailed image with a different image from 2022 that used the Optolong L-Enhance filter to reveal the locations of pink-coloured star-forming regions on the spines of the spiral arms (70 images combined in autumn 2022).

I photographed the Andromeda Galaxy from my garden in Strasbourg France on five nights over three years, 2025, 2024, 2022.

Equipment used to capture images:

Telescope: Redcat51

Computer: ASIAIR

Mount: AM5

Filter: Optolong L-Pro, Optolong L-Enhance

Camera: ASI183MC-PRO

Processing Software:

Pixinsight

Blur Exterminator

Noise Exterminator

Star Exterminator

The magnificent Orion Nebula: The Queen of the Winter Sky. At a distance of only 1,300 light years, consider it nearby on a galactic scale, but distant and huge compared to our tiny solar system.  It is the closest region of intense star formation, and what a show it provides! 

The upper part of the photo reveals a prominent rosebud shape, framed in a diffuse cyan cloud. Below this, there is a much smaller and denser pink cloud with dark streaks, resembling a knotted cravat.

Bridging these regions is a narrow connecting gap of wispy coloured clouds. Above it, the intense white core with the grainy pink “Trapezium” almost enclosed. This is the energetic source of the Orion Nebula. Note that the stars inside the Trapezium are apart on the scale of the distances to our nearest stars.

The colours are revealing: hydrogen is red, oxygen is blue. However, on the right side, there is definitely a green cloud. This colour, only recently understood, is from a complex two-step energizing of the nearby oxygen. 

I photographed the Orion Nebula from my garden in Strasbourg France on two nights: in December 2025 and February 2024. This is a composite of 126 images where each was a 60 second exposure. 

Equipment used to capture images:

Telescope: Redcat51

Computer: ASIAIR

Mount: AM5

Filter: Optolong L-Enhance

Camera: ASI183MC-PRO

Processing Software:

Pixinsight

Blur Exterminator

Noise Exterminator

Star Exterminator

Seti Astro Suite

The Sombrero Galaxy has a unique shape that fascinates amateur Astrophotographers. Part spiral, part elliptical-cloud, but not Lenticular. Astronomers cannot explain why this galaxy is so unusual. Aesthetically, the shroud of dust and the uniform flat-disk shape distract our understanding because we associate these characteristics with sites of industrial development here on earth.

I cropped the image to draw attention to the details visible on the facing edge, and the faint details on the flat upward side.

The Triangulum Galaxy is the third largest member of our local cluster of galaxies. At three million light years distance, it is considered nearby on a full cosmic scale.

This neighbouring galaxy is quite different from ours. Note, in the image, several red blemishes. These are large star-forming areas that are different from those in our galaxy.

I photographed the Triangulum Galaxy from my garden in Strasbourg France on two nights: October 6, 2024 and December 27, 2024.

We are familiar with the typical shape of spiral galaxies: luxurious spiral arms extending from an intense super massive black hole at the centre. Often, the spiral arms have a red-coloured spine, suggesting a curved path of star-formation. Sometimes the spiral arms are close, and sometimes further apart, but, the general shape is similar. However, there are hybrids, there are exceptions.

The Sunflower Galaxy has a super massive black hole at the centre. However, there are two distinct areas extending from it. In the area nearest the centre, the strong luminosity suggests an extended region of influence by the super massive black hole.

In the outer area, the spiral arms are so close that they are hard to distinguish. They do have the red-coloured spines, whose outlines reveal the familiar spiral shape. There are deep textures on the surface, suggesting strong gravitational turbulence that we don’t often see. This suggests to us the colours and textures of a Sunflower.

The Sunflower Galaxy is 30 million light years distance, and is about half the size of our galaxy.

In late summer and early autumn, the Andromeda Galaxy is high in the eastern sky after sunset in the northern hemisphere. This is the best time to capture a photo of the Andromeda Galaxy, the most iconic of astrophotography images.

Catalogued as Messier-31 or M31, it is the nearest galaxy at 2.5 million light years. It appears to have a similar size and structure to our galaxy, but there are significant differences. With this proximity, it appears too large in most backyard telescopes.

It is quite bright at the centre, and easily visible with binoculars. The challenge for astrophotographers is to render the faint edges without over-saturating the intense core. However, I keep the core lightly saturated to remind us that the Andromeda Galaxy has a super-massive black hole at the centre.

There is a tenuous halo of stars with darker dust around the galaxy, and the outer edges seem disrupted. Current thinking is that one or both of the smaller satellite galaxies in the photo (M32 and M110) passed through the Andromeda Galaxy long ago.

This is an ensemble of 180 photos where each was a 3 minute exposure (9 hours of astrophotography). I photographed M31 from my garden in Strasbourg France on 2 nights in September 2024.

More information about the Andromeda Galaxy:

What a story: this is the remnant of a nearby star that exploded in 1054. We know the exact timing because ancient Chinese astronomers documented everything.

So, what you see here is the explosion in progress, but almost a thousand years later.

Note that the remnants of this star, when it exploded, ejected into long strands. It is not clear to me why the explosion created these strands.