Because the Andromeda Galaxy is very faint, without astrophotography we could not appreciate that, from Earth, this galaxy is VERY large. In terms of the extent of this object in our sky, it is the equivalent of six full moons wide. This huge size, even though we are not able to even see it without long-exposure photography, is difficult for people to comprehend. The extreme apparent size makes it difficult with the equipment I use to obtain a distortion-free image. For example, my image shows mild distortion at each of the “ends” of the galaxy: what should appear as a flat disk instead shows bending on each end. There is also chromatic aberration across the image, when in fact there should be a consistent color pattern across the disk.
