M31 is the "most
distant naked-eye object visible to the naked eye". It is pretty
difficult to see with the naked eye except under extremely dark and
clear skies. It is easily found with binoculars, however.
This is a telescopic photograph made with the new CCD camera and an
8-inch telescope. Students Chloe Stuber and Jake Lyerly helped
operate the telescope and camera on Wednesday, Oct. 10,
2007. The galaxy is so huge that it takes many frames to piece
together to capture the whole galaxy which is about 3 times the angular
size of the Moon. We made 11 overlapping frames that will
eventually be stitched together into one large image. The result
here is only two frames. Students will soon help assemble the
total picture.