M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, at a distance of some 2.5 million light years, is the closest large galaxy to our own Milky Way This image was made using the Shywatcher refractor telescope that is mounted piggy-back fashion on the LX200R telescope. It was taken using the Starlight Xpress SXV H16 CCD camera. Exposure was 10 minutes for the luminance channel and 1 minute each for the R, G and B