M32
Messier 32 - Click here for full resolution
Messier 32 is a dwarf "early-type" galaxy about 2,650,000 light-years from the Solar System, appearing in the constellation Andromeda. M32 is a satellite galaxy of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and was discovered by Guillaume Le Gentil in 1749. The galaxy is a prototype of the relatively rare compact elliptical (cE) class. Half the stars concentrate within an effective radius of 330 light-years. Densities in the central stellar cusp increase steeply, and the half-light radius of this central star cluster is around 20 ly. Like more ordinary elliptical galaxies, M32 contains mostly older faint red and yellow stars with practically no dust or gas and consequently no current star formation. It does, however, show hints of star formation in the relatively recent past.
source: Wikipedia
NGC/IC:
Other Names:
Object:
Constellation:
R.A.:
Dec:
Transit date:
Transit Alt:
NGC221
n.a.
Dwarf Satellite Galaxy
Andromeda
00h 42m 42s
+40° 51.9′
19 October
87º N
Conditions
M32 can be very well observed in Autumn, with maximum altitudes reaching 87° in the North. M32 was photographed over 8 nights, during full moon conditions mid October and mid November 2024 from the remote observatory at IC Astronomy in Oria, Spain.
Equipment
The default rig at the observatory was used. The core of this rig is a Planewave CDK-14 telescope on a 10Micron GM2000 mount, coupled to a Moravian C3-61000 Pro full-frame camera. The RoboTarget module in Voyager Advanced automated the process to find optimal time-slots during astronomical night.
Telescope
Mount
Camera
Filters
Guiding
Accessoires
Software
Planewave CDK14, Optec Gemini Rotating focuser
10Micron GM2000HPS, custom pier
Moravian C3-61000 Pro, cooled to -10 ºC
Chroma 50mm Luminance, Red, Green and Blue unmounted, Moravian filterwheel L, 7-position
Unguided
Compulab Tensor I-22, Windows 11, Dragonfly, Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox v2
Voyager Advanced, Viking, Mountwizzard4, Astroplanner, PixInsight 1.8.9-3
Imaging
Bright and straightforward targets like M32 are ideal objects to photograph during full moon periods, as was done here. For that reason, all exposures were limited to 180s for both RGB and Luminance filters. The image was shot as a broadband image, using standard LRGB filters. A total of approximately 19h of exposure was captured. Note that the image is shown with North pointing downwards. This was done to get a nicer composition.
Resolution (original)
Focal length
Pixel size
Resolution
Field of View (original)
Image center
6699 × 4829 px (32.3 MP)
2585 mm @ f/7.3
3.8 µm
0.30 arcsec/px
33' x 24'
RA: 00h 42m 41.421s
Dec: +40° 51’ 47.45”
Processing
All images were calibrated using Darks (50), Flats (50) and Flat-Darks (50), registered and integrated using the WeightedBatchPreProcessing (WBPP) script in PixInsight. All further processing was done in PixInsight, including the use of scripts and tools developed by RC-Astro, SetiAstro, GraXpert, and others. For a step-by-step description of the processing techniques applied, see process flow below.
The Andromeda galaxy was very prominent in the image, making it very difficult to perform any type of effective background extraction. That is why no background extraction was applied.
The target is rather small relative to the Field of View (FoV) of the setup used. Therefore the final image was cropped to about a 33’x24’ FoV.
The rest of the processing followed the usual process.
Processing workflow (click to enlarge)
This image has been published on Astrobin.
