Grinde

There are times when new images pop up that changes the way we look at things... The hubble deep field, for instance, made us realise how much "stuff" there really is even in the emptiest parts of the sky. And this mosaic of Orion will forever change the way I look upon Orion on the sky, it's simply the best widefield I've ever seen, period.

I love the way the whole image looks so "uniform", how the big structures kept the same level of quality across many panels, there simply aren't any visible telltale signs of this being a 30 panel mosaic (except for the ridiculous number of pixels). How's this even possible? Top job guys, we're very grateful you made all this possible, thanks for sharing!

Sign me up if you start selling big prints of this

Jonas

So Olly will need a new dedicated internet connection for the mass of image data being moved!!

The image really shows what is possible..

There will be futuristic stuff regulating the observatory-bandwidth so we won't strangle the data-pipeline too much! And since the rigs are fully automated, no user-inputs will be required during imaging, just submitting the imaging-requests which can be done anytime through any web-browser device such as smartphones, tablets & so on.

I'm very curious what can be done from Les Granges top-quality skies, since this image was shot under quite crappy conditions compared to Olly's!

Just spent another 30 minutes looking through this image and I kept seeing things I didn't see a few days ago when I first saw it. Really is rather special.

Cheers

Ian

The image is cursed, I keep looking at it as well

I just received a list of both old recent novas within M31 that I'll try to add to the annotation when I get the time...

I want to extend my most humble and sincere thanks to all of you who enjoyed and commented my image!!! It's been a long journey and I'm very happy to be able to share this epic "space-voyage to andromeda and back" with all of you. Seeing so many ppl being inspired and encouraged in exploring this fantastic galaxy really makes my day! It definatelly makes up for all my hard work, and it's already making me look forward to my next project, what ever that may be!

A lot of ppl might think I'm crazy, spending all this time and and money on astrophotography... But I'm really making my childhood dream come true, exploring nebulas, galaxies and beyond. My telescope is my spaceship and the ccd is my window. I'm living my dream. Those who don't, they are the ones who's crazy

So to all of you... Thanks!

I forgot that the AG is at f/3.8...that explains a lot lol. Most people would do long exposures combined with short ones to control the core and just do layer masking in the processing to feather the core out. Is the main reason you didn't use this more common technique because of your clouds and seeing, which I completely understand why it would limit you, or is there another reason why?

At f/3.8 and under my skies, 3 minutes was enough to make the background in my subs sky-limited. Increasing sub-lengths beyond that won't bring out fainter background-galaxies (since the sky is "outshining" the weaker ones). In fact, longer exposures would reduce the dynamic range in this photo, bloating more stars and blowing out the core of M 31, so I see no point of going for even longer exposures on this target since its entire dynamic range fits within my cameras dynamic range. The only target I've shot so far that motivates the hassle of multi-length exposures is M42. But for all other than M42, I stick with a single sub-length for all my filters.

Note that these are all my personal opinions based on my own experiences, not to be taken too seriously

Epic piece of work! You surely have your astrograph working to the fullest potential!

Just out of curiosity: Can you see any variance in the brightness of Hubble's V1 Cepheid, since the image was stretched over several months?

Again, great work.

Pieter

Great idea!!

But unfortunately I belive the subs for that particular mosaic-panel was shot during a short period of a few days in the same week, but I'll definately have a look! Perhaps compare it with the earlier M31's I shot with my 190MN.

Great work Jonas, and it was a real pleasure listening to your lecture about this earlier this year.

Thank you!

And once again the pleasure was all mine, thanks for giving me the opportunity of coming down & meeting you all, what a fantastic astro-community you have!

Images like yours just go to show what can be achieved by backyard astronomers. Fantastic image.

Hearing other people being inspired by my work is making it all the hard work worth it. Every single night of cursing the moon, clouds, photoshop & other infernal forces us astrophotographers have to fight all to often Thanks!

 Absolutely amazing piece of work and image    Congratulations!     Truly "out of this world" in both senses 

Thanks Gina! "Out of this world" was my state of mind while processing this... Over and over again I found my self not processing, but exploring

I don't mind my work being used as wallpaper or toiletpaper as long as it's for personal use

But just a quick reminder to all of you thinking of printing it: at home with your own printer is OK, but taking it to a printing-lab without my permission to do so would be a copyright-infringement and against the law & so on.

(And don't think of sending it to a magazine under another name, because I will find you Just like I found someone else posting my Rosette Nebula last year (ended up in S@N magazine). We settled things like gentlemen with no need for Judge Judy to step in... But if it happens again, I will come after you. 

The best   M31 I have EVER  seen!!!!!!!!  Stunningly impressive piece of work.

John

Thanks for your compliments John, I'm very happy you enjoyed my work

This is just fantastic! I can't believe the amount of detail you have achieved in this. Simpley amazing. This was a HUGE undertaking that clearly shows the amount of time that you put into it. My jaw dropped when I saw the first 100% crops.

Btw why did you choose to do 180sec Lum over a longer exposure...or is that suppose to be 1800sec?

Thanks!! It feels like I've been on a month-long expedition to Andromeda, exploring clusters & dustclouds through a panoramic window, (which is partly the truth as well) and I'm very happy I'm able to share this experience with the rest of you!

Regarding the 3minute subs (180s), That was my maximum exposure-length with the lum filter without overexposing the core of the galaxy, the fast focal-ratio of f/3.8 really speed things up, and since the background sky overpowered the readnoise-level I doubt anything would be gained by going for longer subs. And with my crappy seeing and lots of moving clouds, less data got wasted with the short subs and the stars less bloated and less burned out cores.