For decades, capturing detailed images of galaxies beyond the Milky Way has felt like the exclusive domain of high-powered space telescopes like Hubble and the James Webb. But one backyard astrophotographer has shattered that notion with a stunning photo of the Andromeda Galaxy, revealing individual stars and swirling cosmic dust in breathtaking detail.
Andrew McCarthy has made quite the name for himself over the past few years, revealing detailed shots of the lunar surface, the sun, and even some of our solar system’s planets, like Saturn. But his most recent photograph is one that we’ll be talking about for weeks—if not months to come.
That’s because McCarthy recently unveiled a 400-megapixel photo of the Andromeda Galaxy—our closest galactic neighbor, located 2.5 million light-years away. This means the galaxy, as seen in his photo, is frozen in time from an era before modern humans even existed.
What’s especially inspiring about this is that McCarthy didn’t rely on space agencies or billion-dollar observatories to achieve this feat. Instead, he used two 12-inch telescopes strategically placed in different locations to maximize clarity and detail.
One telescope, stationed in a remote area of Texas, gathered broadband data, capturing the galaxy’s vast star fields and overall structure. Meanwhile, his second telescope, located in his backyard in Arizona, utilized special narrowband filters to isolate and enhance the nebulae emissions within Andromeda.
For three months, McCarthy’s telescopes took hundreds of long-exposure photos, carefully piecing together 15 separate panels for a seamless final photograph that shows more of Andromeda’s detail than you’d ever expect to see in a photo captured from a ground-based telescope.
McCarthy told PetaPixel that each panel alone had an average exposure time of 12 hours, revealing details that are typically invisible in amateur astrophotography.
Unlike images taken by professional space telescopes, McCarthy’s stunning photo of the Andromeda Galaxy excels in color depth and contrast, revealing intricate dust swirls and vibrant red star-forming regions at its core.
Sure, it isn’t as high in resolution as those from Hubble or James Webb, but his technique of combining broadband and narrowband data enhances details in a way that traditional space telescopes do not. Perhaps most impressively, this image resolves individual stars within the galaxy—a nearly impossible feat for most Earth-based telescopes.
For those who want a closer look, McCarthy offers a free 4K download and high-resolution prints of what he calls “The Sky Looks Back” for purchase.
