With nearly twice the mass of our very own Milky Way, M 31 is the largest member of the Local Group of Galaxies. The Andromeda Galaxy extends across more than 4 degrees of sky and can be seen quite easily with the naked eye from a good dark location. Being classified as an Sb-type spiral galaxy, M 31 consists of a very bright and distinct central hub or "bulge" and a broad somewhat flattened "disc" containing spiral arms. The colors seen in this or any other spiral are analogous to the stars of our own galaxy. The older population II stars are mostly older K & M type giants that appear to be concentrated within the central bulge of the galaxy. Meanwhile, the younger O & B type stars are often found forming distinctively blue colored OB associations along the winding spiral arms of the disc. Also scattered throughout the disc are countless numbers of HII regions glowing softly with the pinkish hues of hydrogen-alpha emission, which lets us know that actice star-formation is still occuring in this galaxy. Traversing the colorful disc is an intricate network of dusty features and dark lanes. Literally thousands of deepsky objects have been catalogued within the Andromeda Galaxy including OB associations, open star clusters, globular star clusters, planetary nebulae, emission nebulae, and dark nebulae. Also found in this field are two of Andromeda's many companion galaxies, Messier 32 and Messier 110. M 32, is the small round elliptical-type galaxy found directly left of M 31's core. It is currently being cannibalized as much of it's outer gas and stars have been literally torn away by the more massive M 31. The more distant companion, M 110, is a peculiar elliptical galaxy itself having dark absorption-type features located throughout its tiny disc. Several of these dark anomolies can be seen in this image, along with what seems to be a faint stream of gas and stars connecting the elongated disc of M 110 to that of M 31. The luminance portion of this image, processed using techniques that enhance contrast and bring out further detail can be found by clicking here. Meanwhile, a high contrast version of this object's dusty core can be seen here. Image is a 2-frame mosaic taken with 8-inch f/4 Newtonian and SBIG STL-1100XM. Each frame is an LRGB image composed of 20 minutes R,G,B and 60 minutes L. Please click on the above image for the high resolution version.