StargazerRon
By Stargazer Ron
The Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31) is now overhead in Santa Barbara’s night sky. Edwin Hubble deduced that it is 2.5 million light years away and single-handedly reset the size of the universe. If the sun were a grain of sand, then traveling to M31 would be like going from Earth to the Sun 10 trillion times. We now know that our Milky Way looks somewhat similar, having a central core of old cool yellow stars with young hot blue stars being formed on the outer perimeter. Our recent clear October nights made it possible to make this photo from my backyard using a 500mm lens for nearly an hour. Two of Andromeda’s satellite galaxies are visible here: Messier 110 (above) and Messier 32 (below).
