The Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth in the Andromeda constellation. Also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, it is often referred to as the Great Andromeda Nebula in older texts. The Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest spiral galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy, but not the closest galaxy overall.
The Andromeda Galaxy is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which also contains the Milky Way, the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 30 other smaller galaxies. Although the largest, the Andromeda Galaxy may not be the most massive, as recent findings suggest that the Milky Way contains more dark matter and could be the most massive in the grouping. The 2006 observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that M31 contains one trillion (1012) stars: at least twice the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which is estimated to be 200–400 billion.
Jakob Sahner is a 21 year old German astrophotographer who came into contact with the fascination of space early in his childhood. Very early he began to make projects with image and video editing programs and after graduating from high school he completed an apprenticeship as a photo and media technical assistant. The subject has grabbed him like an addiction although he had no knowledge about this hobby. He just wanted to do it and try it out! In the now more than 4 years he has become a worldwide known astrophotographer and has developed his skills from normal landscape astrophotography to deepsky photography.