M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)
noirlab_noao-m31fsqblock February 19th, 2014
Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Adam Block
M31 is the closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way. Located 2.3 million light years away one can easily find this in the Andromeda constellation with their naked eye on clear moonless nights. Historically speaking this galaxy is first mentioned by the Persian astronomer Al Sufi in the year 905 A.D. and can be found on star charts dating back before the invention of the telescope. On clear moonless nights away from city lights and with a pair of quality binoculars this object can be traced out to an angular size of 4 degrees. To give you a comparison the full moon has an angular size of just 1/2 a degree. NOAO has a nice image to demonstrate this angular scale. This image was taken as part of Advanced Observing Program (AOP) program at Kitt Peak Visitor Center during 2014.
Provider: NOIRLab
Image Source: https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noao-m31fsqblock/
Curator: NSF's NOIRLab, Tucson, AZ, USA
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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Image Details
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- noao-m31fsqblock
- Subject Category
- Subject Name
- M31
- Credits
- KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Adam Block
- Release Date
- 2014-02-19T08:37:21
- Lightyears
- Redshift
- Reference Url
- https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noao-m31fsqblock/
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Distance Notes
- Facility
- Visitor Center Roll Off Roof Observatory, Visitor Center Roll Off Roof Observatory, Visitor Center Roll Off Roof Observatory, Visitor Center Roll Off Roof Observatory
- Instrument
- Other CCD, Other CCD, Other CCD, Other CCD
- Color Assignment
- Luminosity, Blue, Green, Red
- Band
- Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
- Bandpass
- Broad Band, B, G, R
- Central Wavelength
- 555, 438, 475, 625
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- None, None, None, None
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 9.93263866506, 40.4122110044
- Reference Dimension
- 3676.0, 1336.0
- Reference Pixel
- 466.711149216, 666.604560852
- Scale
- -0.000735563600716, 0.000734802532461
- Rotation
- -120.32413799244
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- Creator (Curator)
- NSF's NOIRLab
- URL
- https://noirlab.edu
- Name
- Telephone
- Address
- 950 North Cherry Ave.
- City
- Tucson
- State/Province
- AZ
- Postal Code
- 85719
- Country
- USA
- Rights
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- Publisher
- NSF's NOIRLab
- Publisher ID
- noirlab
- Resource ID
- noao-m31fsqblock
- Resource URL
- http://noirlab.edu/public/media/archives/images/original/noao-m31fsqblock.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2021-08-30T17:52:02+02:00
- Metadata Version
- 1.1
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
