A Night of Observing

                            

I finally decided to take the time to drive for an hour and a half out to Custer Institute to do some observing through my telescope, and to try some astrophotography with my new Sony a7 camera.  The forecast was for clear skies, but not great "transparency." which means it will be clear but there will be perhaps some haze or smoke that will not result in the darkest skies possible.  I took a chance, and conditions were worse than forecast - there were scattered clouds everywhere.  So observing and photography were not great, but, it was better to be out under the stars than sitting around watching TV!  This is the Andromeda galaxy and it is pretty much a twin to our galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy.  The Andromeda Galaxy  is barred spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth.  The Andromeda Galaxy has a diameter of about 220,000 light years, and the number of stars contained in the Galaxy is estimated at one trillion.  The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are expected to collide in around 4-5 billion years, merging to form a giant elliptical galaxy or a large lenticular galaxy.  It is a beautiful thing to behold through a telescope under dark skies, or you can google it and see what a magnificent object it is when photographed in color.  You will be stunned at how beautiful it is, and my first feeble attempt is hardly worth looking at.