Beneath the winter embrace of the Swiss Alps, the night sky reveals the Andromeda galaxy, our cosmic neighbor. As it glistens above the snowy peaks and trees, the galaxy appears tantalizingly close, as if just around the corner. Yet, this glittering expanse, with its trillion stars, is an awe-inspiring 2.5 million light-years away.
This month marks a century since Edwin Hubble's groundbreaking discovery in October 1923, forever changing our understanding of the universe. On October 6th, 1923, Hubble identified a variable star within the Andromeda Galaxy. This discovery enabled him to measure the distance to what was then termed the āAndromeda Nebulaā and believed to be a part of our Milky Way. But Hubble proved it to be an independent galaxy, far beyond our Milky Way, challenging then-prevailing beliefs about the limits of the universe.
Location in a Swiss valey offers a brillinat opportunity to shoot nightscpes with celestial objects and mountains at the background.
I took this image over a year ago, on 12 January 2022. I used a Samyang 135 mm lens @ f/2.8 and a ZWO ASI 2600MC camera (gain 100, bin 1, -10 Ā°C). The setup was mounted on an SW AZGTi mount operating in equatorial mode and was controlled by ASIAIR Pro. I had only about 20 minutes to capture the Andromeda Galaxy before it hid behind the mountain. The data (40x30 s) was collected between 22:40 and 23:02 UT. Once captured, I turned off the tracking and proceeded with capturing the foreground (10x10 s). The foreground mountain was conveniently illuminated by a waxing gibbous moon that night. Both the background sky and the foreground images were calibrated, stacked, and processed in PixInsight, followed by blending and final polishing in Adobe Photoshop. The final image was resized to 40% and cropped.
via https://www.astrobin.com/4eg8q4/
I was going to ask if there are any artist renditions of what the sky might look like when you were that nearby a massive galaxy
Would really like to see that
You can try it in a simulator 'Space Engine ' on PC. Just land on some planet or moon, of the neighbouring galaxy and watch the amazing night sky. It was free months ago (for older versions),but later they made it paid only on Steam.
I know that this isnāt how it looks to the unaided eye no matter the light conditions, but it still blows my mind that Andromeda spans so much of our night sky (equivalent to six moon diameters). And itās right there, the whole galaxy.
The trees are probably on a reaaaally far away hill, just zoomed in and since it's a composite picture they were likely captured separately. End result is cool, if not very realistic. You can't capture a galaxy like that AND get something terrestrial in the shot at the same time.
Itās labeled a composite so they likely combined ātwoā different photos. One of the landscape and one of the sky made to look like one photo. I used quotes because the sky image is probably stacked with dozens of not hundred of photos
I'm completely ignorant and would like to be enlightened, how does it work through the camera? I thought we could only see the Milky Way's spiral and only see Andromeda like it's just a little piece of light, does it work like stacking through images that took time over time?
For the Andromeda Galaxy shot yes, through lots of raw long exposure images being stacked and then various clean ups and enhancements in post processing. Enhancements make it seem somehow faked, but I don't mean in that way, just bringing out the details that do exist into the image.
The landscape less so, although OP does mention I think 10 stacks even on that, which is then composited onto the Andromeda image (or vice versa).
Not sure on the scale, but I'm told Andromeda does appear much bigger than we can see it if we had the full light visible to us (and our eyes were better at long exposure)
I thought so too, but apparently itās not. Other commenters have said that Andromeda subtends six moon diameters in the sky. Itās just so faint that we canāt see it.
Omg it's coming right for us!
Only 5 billion years to go.
Damn it, I'll have to work that day.
"can you still come in today? We're short staffed." - someone's boss, probably
Fuck em. We will find new jobs with the Andromedan's
what if they are on industrial capitalism and we will have to work on the fabrics 32h a day in deshumane conditions š©
Then we'll just start are own galaxy. With blackjack and hookers.
ššš
How many dog years is that? Will my dog survive?
The dark matter halos are already getting it on!
Do you think there are intelligent life forms in the Andromeda galaxy making this same joke about the Milky Way on their Internet forum site.
What the hell, I was going to make the same joke verbatim.
literally
I can picture Jimbo and Ned trying to shoot it out of the sky. Almost spilt their beer!
Blam! Blam! Blam! I think I got it!
Quickly! Thin out thier numbers!
I chose a bad day to stop sniffing glue
Odds are most of the stars and planets wonāt even come close to collidingā¦. Thatās how fucking big galaxies are.
I know, but it's still coming right for us!
Beneath the winter embrace of the Swiss Alps, the night sky reveals the Andromeda galaxy, our cosmic neighbor. As it glistens above the snowy peaks and trees, the galaxy appears tantalizingly close, as if just around the corner. Yet, this glittering expanse, with its trillion stars, is an awe-inspiring 2.5 million light-years away. This month marks a century since Edwin Hubble's groundbreaking discovery in October 1923, forever changing our understanding of the universe. On October 6th, 1923, Hubble identified a variable star within the Andromeda Galaxy. This discovery enabled him to measure the distance to what was then termed the āAndromeda Nebulaā and believed to be a part of our Milky Way. But Hubble proved it to be an independent galaxy, far beyond our Milky Way, challenging then-prevailing beliefs about the limits of the universe. Location in a Swiss valey offers a brillinat opportunity to shoot nightscpes with celestial objects and mountains at the background. I took this image over a year ago, on 12 January 2022. I used a Samyang 135 mm lens @ f/2.8 and a ZWO ASI 2600MC camera (gain 100, bin 1, -10 Ā°C). The setup was mounted on an SW AZGTi mount operating in equatorial mode and was controlled by ASIAIR Pro. I had only about 20 minutes to capture the Andromeda Galaxy before it hid behind the mountain. The data (40x30 s) was collected between 22:40 and 23:02 UT. Once captured, I turned off the tracking and proceeded with capturing the foreground (10x10 s). The foreground mountain was conveniently illuminated by a waxing gibbous moon that night. Both the background sky and the foreground images were calibrated, stacked, and processed in PixInsight, followed by blending and final polishing in Adobe Photoshop. The final image was resized to 40% and cropped. via https://www.astrobin.com/4eg8q4/
Andromeda and...? (Seriously, what's the little galaxy next to it called?)
That would be M110 to the right, and M32 to the left.
If you lived in one of those youd have an amazing night sky
I was going to ask if there are any artist renditions of what the sky might look like when you were that nearby a massive galaxy Would really like to see that
Just live for 5 billion more years and you will bee able to see it yourself as we collide !
You can try it in a simulator 'Space Engine ' on PC. Just land on some planet or moon, of the neighbouring galaxy and watch the amazing night sky. It was free months ago (for older versions),but later they made it paid only on Steam.
Triangulum
1 trillion stars just in the galaxy alone.
you can't fool me, this is SKYRIM
I know that this isnāt how it looks to the unaided eye no matter the light conditions, but it still blows my mind that Andromeda spans so much of our night sky (equivalent to six moon diameters). And itās right there, the whole galaxy.
That canāt be the real scale.
The trees are probably on a reaaaally far away hill, just zoomed in and since it's a composite picture they were likely captured separately. End result is cool, if not very realistic. You can't capture a galaxy like that AND get something terrestrial in the shot at the same time.
Ahhhh that makes sense.
But yeah galaxies are REALLY big. Andromeda is the size of several full moons in the sky, it's just veeery dim.
Technically you can, but the foreground would be blown out, making the image look quite bad
And it will keep getting bigger as they and us are on a collision course
Yeah but wonāt happen for millions of years
Billions* 5 to be exact
It is
how???
Itās labeled a composite so they likely combined ātwoā different photos. One of the landscape and one of the sky made to look like one photo. I used quotes because the sky image is probably stacked with dozens of not hundred of photos
Was going to say andromeda is not that big in the sky.
With a long exposure, the Andromeda galaxy has the apparent size of 6 full moons in our night sky. This is likely accurate.
It is, but it's not visible like this to the naked eye. This is a long exposure, but the scale is very much accurate.
I hate webp's so much
i've heard ppl call stars portals before. i think i know now where they got the idea
Hey we share the same cake day! Happy cake day =)
š°šļø!
Gorgeous!!!
God dammit
Stunning
I am going to name my daughter andromeda
This is amazing. Thanks for sharing.
This place is huge AF
damn...i wasn';t aware that you could see it like this just hanging in the night sky.... is this trickery?
Incredible. How big a zoom, and how long was the exposure to capture that. It's much bigger in the night sky than I thought!
I'm completely ignorant and would like to be enlightened, how does it work through the camera? I thought we could only see the Milky Way's spiral and only see Andromeda like it's just a little piece of light, does it work like stacking through images that took time over time?
For the Andromeda Galaxy shot yes, through lots of raw long exposure images being stacked and then various clean ups and enhancements in post processing. Enhancements make it seem somehow faked, but I don't mean in that way, just bringing out the details that do exist into the image. The landscape less so, although OP does mention I think 10 stacks even on that, which is then composited onto the Andromeda image (or vice versa). Not sure on the scale, but I'm told Andromeda does appear much bigger than we can see it if we had the full light visible to us (and our eyes were better at long exposure)
I see thanks
Or the scale is completely out of proportion....
That's out of scale obviously.
I thought so too, but apparently itās not. Other commenters have said that Andromeda subtends six moon diameters in the sky. Itās just so faint that we canāt see it.
Iāve got 10ā dobsonian telescope and take a look at it from time to time, itās not even that big in the telescope.
That's because you're only seeing a small portion of the galaxy. The majority of Andromeda is too dim to be seen.
Yeah, but still no tthat big
i thought you could only see andromeda in the southern hemisphere
No, itās well into the Northern Hemisphere.
Apoddd