As our closest galactic neighbour, I’ve imaged M31 the Andromeda Galaxy five times since beginning my personal astrophotography journey in 2014, each time using my William Optics GT81 apo refractor – first with a DSLR, then a ASI1600mm-Cool and most recently ASI294MM cameras.  Andromeda is perhaps the perfect object for my equipment, as it just fits the field-of-view of the aforesaid set-up, which produces something of an up-close-and-personal image of this alluring galaxy. But despite the success of these images, perhaps there’s an alternative view?

This year, I therefore deployed my Samyang 135 + ASI1600MM-Cool rig to capture 6 ½ hours of Andromeda, the result of which shows a whole new perspective of M31.  The widefield format of this lens produces greater context than previous images, whilst still obtaining excellent details and colours of the galaxy itself.  As a result, this final image (see above) better reveals the galaxy in its true glory deep in space, which in some ways I believe can be more powerful than the more popular close-up renditions of this impressive object (M31 with star reduction applied to the image below).