Seanelly

The colour is beginning to pop beautifully.

Many thanks! I'm anxious to add more data and get my guiding worked out.

The details are fascinating-well done!

This is awesome.

My first long exposure image taken since acquiring the new kit a couple of months ago, and even though it didn't go according to plan, it does show an incremental progress I was counting on.

I got the new DSLR shutter release remote working for the first time, and was hoping for several hours of data. What I did get was 16x180s decent lights out of 32 taken before the laptop, hence the guider, shut down on me, and having forgotten to charge the backup batttery (so many things to keep in mind for a newby!), my night was done without even getting any dark images, bias or lights.

Half my images were useless from star trails, probably from a jostling of the tripod that I thought was not as serious as it seemed to turn out, and even this image shows signs of it.

So this is 16 stacked images of 3 minutes each with adjustment in DeepSkyStacker to acquire some contrast, with some false blue added in a totally inadequate microsft photo editor, because my wife won't let me get Adobe Photoshop CC until Christmas!

Sharp image, very nice!

Beautiful image

Well done!

SO nice!

Awesome photo.

Awesome photo.

Very nice.

So well done!

Gorgeous image.

Awesome!

I've been using this galaxy just recently as a test subject for my new (five weeks) rig because it is so open and nearly crosses the zenith in my neck of the woods here in eastern Ontario, but the 900mm focal ratio on my SkyWatcher 100mm, even with the .85x reducer/flattener, means only the core (pretty much just the bright area (white and greenish)  that shows in this image) is visible in the field of view. The data you've accumulated for this (15x30s) tells me that you are using the exposure limit of the DSLR alone, if my Canon T6i is any indication, without any other software or a programmable shutter release, the same as I am doing, but still your image shows much more detail than I am getting from the core area after stacking several dozen images taken with the same settings (I've tried both 800 and 1600iso), though in my case through the 100mm scope, and even with a camera clip-in IDAS LPS filter, and 10-15 flats, darks and bias frames added. In short, I believe I'm doing correctly everything I've learned up to this point. This photo has made me think that perhaps I am using the wrong test subject, or at least with equipment better suited for other test objects, and I will try using the DSLR with my 250mm lens alone mounted on top of the scope and see how my results compare to yours. 

Also, if I'm not mistaken, I see that your stars are just beginning to trail(?), which suggests to me that you are guiding with perhaps only the mount, and not with any software (PHD2, for example)? I am using PHD2 and my stars after 30s are fine, but still the data is not coming in as I expected.

It's all too new to me to get a handle on what's really causing my lack of data, as I've only had the rig up and running for testing for a couple of weeks but the weather has not cooperated and I've really only had maybe four partial evenings to try figuring this all out. 

So much to learn!

Thanks for listening, if you've made it this far, and I don't expect an answer as I haven't really asked more than a rhetorical question or two, but this helps to work things through in my mind, and I will definitely try to duplicate your set up and see what I get.

Very nice.

1 hour ago, Cozzy said:

Yes I agree, M110 and the prominent dust lanes feel right at this angle to me, but hey each to there own as they say.

It may just be a case of the familiar, as I've rarely seen it displayed in any other way.

This is lovely. And I was wondering if you'd get around to adjusting the view. Though there is no up or down in space, in my opinion this galaxy always looks better oriented this way.

This was taken with a modified Canon T6i and IDAS LPS D1 clip-in filter.

   Testing...testing...

   Finally a reasonably clear night to test my new gear and see if I'm progressing. Mount setup and polar finding are much easier now, and I've finally got PHD2 focusing issues resolved.

   Next in line is getting my DSLR supported in Astrophotography Tool-APT so I can get some longer exposures and really see what is what.

   I'm quite pleased with the results so far, this test image being a total of only 17 30s lights and 10 darks, 30s being the longest exposure I can get from the DSLR alone.

   They were compiled in DeepSkyStacker but processed only in Windows Edit, as my Adobe Photoshop is not set up yet.

   My Sky-Watcher 100mm ED APO has a focal length of 900mm, reduced .85x with the added field flattener, which is why only the cenral region of M31 is in the field of view.

   I'm SO looking forward to trying out longer exposures!

Lots of interesting detail here.

Well done, the cloud formations add to the interest.

Super photo, great definition.

Very nice!