Ten Minute Andromeda

[Knight of Clear Skies]

A bar of cloud started encroaching on my main target Thursday night, but I couldn't resist having a quick go at Andromeda with my 50mm lens before packing up. It must have been rush hour for that section of the sky, in ten minutes I had three planes and some wispy cloud wander through the frame.

Canon 1100d, 50mm lens at f4, 5x2 minute subs at ISO 800. No darks or flats.

Here's a 1:1 crop of Andromeda, with the contrast tweaked and a very slight sharpening:

... and inverted...

It's certainly not going to win any prizes but I'm really pleased with it. I have a few options for a longer run when conditions are more favourable. I can either stick with the 50mm, possibly opening up the aperture a bit more since I will be cropping any coma out of the final image anyway, or try a longer lens. I've just bought a couple of cheap M42 primes (135mm and 200mm) which I need to test out to see how suitable they are for astrophotography, or I have my 55-250mm zoom.

[oldpink]

very nice
just coming into range for me as a target esp as the nights are slowly getting longer

[cockney]

very nice.

[bruno]

nice shot you can just make out the other galaxy above Andromeda as well                                         

[Pete Presland]

very nice it makes a change to see this giant in a widefield setting, i was out Thursday and could not believe how much air traffic there was, it was like being under the equivalent of the jet M25 of the sky