M31 Panorama

M31 Panorama

This image was created with data from the Local Group Survey, completed with the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. M31, M33 and our Milky Way are the three largest members of the Local Group of galaxies. M31 is a spiral galaxy very similar in size and mass to our own. Ten 'pointings' of the camera along the galaxy in five filters were used to make the image. You could line seven full moons across the image. The five filters show the star colors and HII star forming regions in vivid detail. About 600 million pixels in size, it is the largest and most detailed image of M31 ever completed that covers the entire galaxy.

Observatory: Kitt Peak National Observatory  Kitt Peak, Arizona
Telescope: KPNO 4-Meter
Instrument: Mosaic I  
Astronomer: Local Group Survey Team and T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage)
Date of Observation: 10-04-2000
Filters and Assigned Colors: U (violet), B (blue), V (cyan), I (orange) and H-alpha (red)
Exposure Times: 50x1min in B and V, 50x10min in U, 50x150sec in I, and 50x5min in H-alpha
Location of Image: Andromeda
Field of View: 209.4 x 52.8 arcmin
Orientation: Rotated CW 127 degrees from north is up east is to the left
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