Andromeda Widefield

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Had a lovely run of clear skies night last week and captured plenty of data to practise my processing skills on, and took various test shots with different lenses. Here's a quick process of my first proper run on Andromeda:

It's a crop of an image taken with my 50mm lens. As I was going to crop it down anyway I was less concerned about coma so I opened up the aperture a bit more. At f3.2 looking at the liveview I seemed to be getting chromatic aberration on the brighter stars, so I backed off to f3.5. Looking at the full frame the corners aren't bad, so I'm going to stick with f3.5 for my next target. I also managed to push my subs a bit longer, to 150 seconds. Can't remember exactly how many I took, but it's over an hour of data.

Pretty happy with it, there is a fair amount of detail in the dust lanes. However, I've seen better versions taken with much shorter subs, so either LP is dragging down my signal-to-noise ratio or my processing skills aren't up to scratch. I suspect it's both.

An LP filter and polar-scope are next on my shopping list, maybe in time for the next Moon cycle.

Also, here's a bonus Cassiopeia, taken with my 35mm Carl-Zeiss M42 lens at f4.5. It's a crop as LP gradients spoiled the full frame.

Can just make out the Pac-man nebula, and that's the double cluster at the lower left edge, with come other clusters around that area. I'm not sure what that bubble is to the right of Caph.

[Alien 13]

Nice images looks like you have your EQ3-2 running nicely, Andromeda is a great target for camera lenses.

Alan

[Pete Presland]

very nice images lots of objects in view, i particularly like the wideview of the Andromeda galaxy. the bubble to the right of Caph is NGC 7789 i think.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

the bubble to the right of Caph is NGC 7789 i think.

Pretty sure you are right thanks, in full res it does look more like a cluster than a nebula.

[robbie c]

Couple of great images you got there lots of detail love the Andromeda image 

[AlienMoon]

Nice Pictures you have there.

Love the Andromeda Image very much and it's imaging like these that make me want to get out there & do this myself.

Thank you for sharing

[RichM63]

Sweet Andromeda image, made even more enjoyable when I read the kit in your signature. There's hope for me yet!

[matt-c]

Both really nice images so many stars  
Good job mate

[wxsatuser]

Both images are pretty good, more data would no doubt boost them.

I did about an hour on M31 the other night, to give you an idea here it is with the EF200mm L at f4.5, 300sec subs.

My processing leaves a lot to be desired but I did have a go with gradient exterminator and that worked nicely.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Thanks everyone.

Sweet Andromeda image, made even more enjoyable when I read the kit in your signature. There's hope for me yet!

The nice thing about imaging at such a short focal length is that it's very forgiving on the polar alignment and tracking.

[happy-kat]

Love it can see what it is.

How long were your subs please?

[O-RICH]

these pictures are incredible, i wish the telescope/our eyes could see it with such detail.

[szymon]

The andromeda shot is superb.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

How long were your subs please?

150 seconds, which is probably a bit too long at f3.5 and ISO 800 in my local sky as the peak of the histogram was about half way across. It's just over an hour of data in total.

The Cassiopeia image was taken 180 second subs at f4.5, which comes out a bit less bright. It's 6 subs so 18 minutes in total.

[happy-kat]

Thank you, and reading your original post again doh me it was there all along.

[ctstetson]

Love the Andromeda image, "its full of stars".  Awesome.

Tom

[wxsatuser]

very nice images lots of objects in view, i particularly like the wideview of the Andromeda galaxy. the bubble to the right of Caph is NGC 7789 i think.

I think your right.....known as Caroline's Rose Cluster.