The Andromeda Galaxy

Wider in the sky than 5 full moons, the Andromeda Galaxy is the furthest away object that most people can see without a telescope (2.5 million light years). It takes light over 200,000 years to go from one side to the other, it's that big. This was shot using a 70-300mm zoom lens, zoomed to 160mm, riding piggyback on a telescope so it could follow the stars across the sky for 4.5 minutes. ISO 1600. Click to view larger!

I'm finally venturing into deep sky photography using my telescope as a

tracking platform. Enjoy!

Mesmerizing image, I am surprised by the quality of the image taking in account the equipment used. When one think in "Astrophotography" one imagine a bunch of huge expensive ultra sophisticated tools.  Chapeau.

amazing capture. Didn't know could be done with a regular lens. Better than many shots done by folks with fancy telescopes!

Thankyou Carlos and Gregory! There are some brighter, larger objects in the sky like this one that can be photographed with a camera and lens. The trick is to have it follow the stars as they move across the sky, which is where the fancy telescope comes in handy.

Cheers,
Scott

I just recently started imaging the night sky. Maybe that is why I realize this is amazingly good work both imaging and processing.  Bravo, Scott.

Thanks Wayne! Astrophotography must be the most technically challenging type of photography there is. All so we can produce shots that we have very little compositional control over, except for how we crop it. Crazy!