M31 UVCUT with new dark frame

[pyrasanth]

Some of you might have followed my thread with regard to the joy of dark frames & calibration issues with the RASA. I followed the advice of Harry & Olly & have been working with a set of dark frames calibrated to the exposure length & not using scaled darks. The result is encouraging & dramatic. What I need to do next is to produce an appropriate flat as the flat I'm using for L is suspect but I can improve with gradient exterminator.

The image of M31 is cropped strangely only because its a mix of 3 L sessions and the angle of the camera was different for all three thus requiring some dramatic cropping but currently as I'm in experiment phase I'm not too concerned. The image below is 92 2 minute subs with the new dark applied. It is not black clipped but quite close to the left edge. I could make it a bit darker & not clip the black but I know convention likes a bit lighter skies. I intend to get a field rotator but I'm not sure if the RASA has enough back focus I need to research a little for that option.

As always the image is best seen big. I'm quite pleased as my sky's are rubbish & this only a stack of L frames so I think when I get the new light flat that will make another improvement. As always your comments are invited.

Clear skies to you and thanks to all who contributed in the calibration topic.