The Glowing Beauty of Andromeda

Image Title: The Glowing Beauty of Andromeda

Copyright: Gianmaria Veronese

Date image was taken: August 22, 2026

Location: Foppolo (Orobie Alps, Italy)

Data Acquisition Method: Personal Telescope Setup

Description and Details: The Andromeda Galaxy is one of the brightest and most familiar deep-sky objects in the northern sky. Its bright core and main spiral structure can be captured relatively quickly, which often makes M31 seem like an easy target that does not require much integration time.

But its faintest structures tell a very different story.

This image is based on approximately 5 hours of deep broadband integration at f/3. Going far beyond the exposure needed to capture Andromeda's bright core allowed the much fainter extensions of the galaxy, its intricate dust lanes, and the subtle dusty glow surrounding M31 to begin emerging from the background.

At the same time, a second telescope collected approximately 5 hours of dual-band data. The H-alpha signal was extracted from this dataset and combined with the broadband image to create an HaRGB composition.

The red structures visible throughout the spiral arms are HII regions: vast clouds of ionized hydrogen associated with active star formation. Adding H-alpha makes this hidden structure much more prominent while preserving the natural broadband appearance of the galaxy.

Both datasets were acquired simultaneously during a single night with MANTA, my dual-telescope imaging system. While one telescope was collecting the deep broadband signal, the other was gathering the H-alpha-rich dual-band data on exactly the same field.

This is only the first stage of a longer project. The goal of the next sessions will be to push the broadband integration considerably deeper and reveal more of the extremely faint dust surrounding Andromeda.

M31 may be bright.
What surrounds its glow is not.

Technical details

Location: Foppolo, Italian Alps — Bortle 4
Imaging system: MANTA dual-OTA
Telescopes: 2× Tecnosky 114/456 Newtonians
Correctors: 2× Starizona Nexus 0.75×
Effective focal length: ~340 mm
Effective focal ratio: f/3
Cameras: 2× ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Broadband: Optolong L-QEF — ~5 hours
Dual-band / Hα: Optolong L-PARA — ~5 hours
Acquisition: both datasets captured simultaneously during the same night
Final composition: HaRGB

Name: Gianmaria Veronese

Website, Instagram or Facebook Profile: gianmaria_veronese