Circumpolar Star Trails

M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is the closest large galaxy to our own Milkyway galaxy. At a distance of approximately 2.2 million light years and at a size of nearly 65,000 light years across, this galaxy is easily seen as a naked eye object in the night sky and appears as a faint fuzzy patch in the constellation, Andromeda. The two smaller fuzzy objects in the image above are the satellite galaxies, M32 and M110.

Image Specifications:

     •  Instrument:  Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 @ f4.0
     •  Camera:  Canon D60
     •  Filters:  None
     •  Mount:  Fixed Tripod
     •  Guiding:  None
     •  Time / Date :  April 11, 2006, 9:00PM EST
     •  Location:  Carranza Field, NJ
     •  Weather:  Clear, 40degF
     •  Primary Exposure :  11 x 6min, combined in Photoshop using Lighten Blend method
     •  Calibration Frames:  None
     •  Image Processing :  Photoshop CS2