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This image resolves the star that Edwin Hubble made famous in 1923 when he determined it to be a Cepheid variable, from which he estimated the distance to the Andromeda "Nebula" and thereby demonstrated that it was a lot farther away (and the universe was a lot bigger) than anyone thought it was at the time. His discovery used previous work by astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who discovered the relation between the luminosity and period of Cepheid variables, allowing them to be used as "standard candles" to determine the distance to other galaxies. Thanks to Eric for identifying the star lurking in his spectacular data. Please click here to see an annotated image that identifies "The Star That Changed the Universe".
M31 - The Core of the Andromeda Galaxy
Image Processing by Bob Fera
Data acquisition by Eric Coles
PlaneWave CDK-20 20" f/7.7 Corrected Dall-Kirkham Cassegrain
PlaneWave L-500 Mount
QHY600M Camera
Chroma Filters
LHaRGB Composite - L:565 Ha:240 R:215 G:100 B:240 minutes
Sub Exposures: L:113x5min Ha:24x10min R:43x5min G:22x5min B:24x5min Binned 2x2
Image acquired with Voyager
Processed in Pixinsight, CCDstack and Adobe Photoshop
Taken September, October 2022 from Sierra Remote Observatories, CA