A Galaxy Not So Far Away…
My photo of the Andromeda galaxy with an unmodified DSLR camera and WO RedCat 51 II telescope!
Messier 31 or the Andromeda Galaxy is one of the closest galaxies to our own Milky Way. It’s also one of the brightest and largest deep space objects in the sky which makes it a great beginner target!
Even when viewed from a light polluted area, Andromeda is usually still visible to the naked eye, so it's pretty easy to find.
Check out the screenshot below from Stellarium! Stellarium by the way, is a free cross-platform piece of software that you can use to plan out your imaging sessions (amongst other things). I am in no way affiliated with Stellarium but I’ve found it to be an invaluable resource, especially when first starting out.
Star hopping from the constellation Cassiopeia or through the bright stars in the Andromeda constellation makes finding M31 a breeze. Image Credit: Courtesy of Stellarium
More great news! A quick YouTube search will show that several astrophotographers have captured beautiful images of M31 with a simple, out-of-the-box kit lens and camera just like this one.
I encourage you to go take a peek at some of their videos; it just goes to show that you don’t need to empty your wallet to produce brilliant art!
BONUS ROUND!
One more cool thing about imaging the Andromeda Galaxy. You might notice two more spiral smudges above and below M31 in the shots above. Those are actually two more galaxies! M32 and M110 are two of the satellite galaxies to Andromeda so you get three for the price of one!
As a final fun fact, according to NASA, scientists predict that the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies will eventually collide, creating an even bigger galaxy…fortunately for those of us reading this post, that’s a long way off.