Astrophotograph made with a 6-inch Astro-Physics refractor telescope

Riverside Astronomical Society, Riverside, California, United States

Messier object 31 (m31) is known as "The Great Andromeda Galaxy." It is a beautiful spiral galaxy that is also the largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, which includes the Milky Way as well as some two dozen other smaller galaxies. It is visible on dark autumn nights as a faint, hazy patch of light that is wider than the full moon. At a distance of 2.5 million light years from earth, m31 is one of the farthest objects visible to the unaided eye.