This photograph was taken on January 30, 1998 from Statesboro, Georgia. We were invited to
attend a starparty with the Statesboro Astronomy Club by Becky Lowder. Despite skyglow from
nearby downtown Statesboro directly below the constellation, this exposure came out fairly well.
Notice the prominent nebulosity of the Great Orion Nebula, M42 in the sword. The exposure was
two minutes with Fuji 800 ASA and was taken with the Olympus OM-2, 50mm lens set at f/2, and
the camera was piggybacked on the Celestron C8.
This is my first attempt at capturing this deep sky object on film. The particulars and exposure settings are identical to the Orion photograph above, with the exception that at 120mm lens at f/3.8 was used. One of the companion galaxies to M31 is just visible at the lower left. In the original print the other much fainter companion galaxy is also visible, but did not reproduce during the scanning process. The Andromeda Galaxy is the most distant object that the naked eye can see. I don't remember the exact distance, but its around twp million light years. To put this awesome gulf of space into perspective, mankind (or what was to become mankind) hadn't come down from the trees yet when the light we see today left this galaxy. WOW!
A little bit of Bach goes a long way, don't you agree?.
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Notice: All photographs are copyright 2007 by Philip Neidlinger. All rights reserved.
Page last updated December 12, 2003 by Philip Neidlinger