M-31 (NGC-224) is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation of Andromeda. It lies 2.5 million light years from Earth and is the nearest large galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy. It is morphologically classed as a SA(s)b galaxy. Its mass is similar to our own Milky Way, approximately 1 trillion solar masses. It is moving towards our galaxy at a rate of about 68 miles per second.
This image, acquired on the evening of October 17, 2017, is a 1 hour integration of 6 minute exposures through the Celestron C-11 at f/2 using the HyperStar III imaging system and the ZWO ASI 071 MC CMOS camera operating at -5 degrees below ambient temperature and binned 1 X 1. Guided, captured and combined using Maxim DL5 Pro. Post processed using PhotoShop CS2, Gradient XTerminator, StarShrink, Carboni's Astro Tools and NoiseWare.