Captured 8/6/2010 at the Astronomical Society of Kansas City's Dark Sky Site near Butler, MO, this image of the Andromeda Galaxy is a digital "stack" of 15 exposures, each 10 minutes long for the equivalent of a single 2.5 hour exposure. This extended exposure time brings out faint details in the spiral arms of the galaxy that would otherwise be imperceptible to the human eye when viewing through a telescope.

Andromeda is a spiral galaxy very similar to our own Milky Way galaxy and is located approximately 2.5 million light years from Earth. Andromeda has the distinction of being one of the most distant objects that can be seen with the naked eye, appearing as a faint smudge when viewed on a dark, moonless night. The "M31" designation was given to Andromeda in 1764 by Charles Messier in his catalog of objects "not to be confused with comets," though the first recorded observation of Andromeda occurred in 964 AD.

Also visible in the photograph are two companion "satellite" galaxies, M32, the bright spot just above and left of Andromeda's core, and M110 the larger object just below Andromeda.