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Showing results for tags 'm31'.
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One of my favorite deep sky objects in the night sky, the great Andromeda galaxy. All the processing has been done with Pixinsight. The scope was FSQ-85 with the good old unmodded Canon 6D. Around 5 hours of data with 5 minutes exposure. Hope to add some short exposures to the core someday.
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M31 wideangle and closer in
Andywilliams posted a topic in Imaging - Widefield, Special Events and Comets
My first ever M31 ! For us in NZ this object is a real challenge as it never rises more than a few degrees above the horizon. This is actually as high as it gets and I have included a wide field shot to demonstrate its position at the moment. Coupled with fairly ordinary seeing I’m really rather proud of my first attempt. It really tested my polar alignment and my excellent star adventurer Mount. There is a nasty gradient and it’s a bit brown but apart from that I can see dust lane ! I’m still saving for pixinsight as I suspect there maybe more info in this image. All comment and criticism is welcomed. Cheers, Andy Canon 6d 75-300mm @ 300mm Iso 4000 32X120 seconds ( 1 hour 4 minutes total integration) 15 darks 20flats 20 bias Processed in photoshop and Lightroom- 1 reply
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HaLRGB with ASI1600 and Samyang 135mm - Andromeda Galaxy M31
bdlbug posted a topic in Getting Started With Imaging
Everyone, This is only my second real attempt using my ASI1600MC with 5 filters, LRGB and HA (7nm), prior to this Ive been using a un-modded Cannon 600D with my 106mm APO. But this image was taken with a Samyang 135mm lens, many people talk about how good it is at f2 and I am very pleased with how my image has turned out, it is by no means perfect in any sense, there are gradients all over due to light pollution from two distribution warehouse parks, to my north and south west and skyglow from Milton Keynes to my South East. However, this is where I live so I have to work within the limitations of the location. Image details Andromeda Galaxy M31 Tuesday 15th August Camera ASI1600MC, set to unity gain Capture software APT L 60 subs R 40 subs G 40 subs B 40 subs Ha 60 subs A total integration time 2.5 hrs of data The LRGB subs were 30s unguided on my azeq6, that I got tuned by David Woods at DarkFrame, @Woodsey65, I wasn't pushing for longer subs on the visual side as at unity gain more than 30s gives me a very washed out image due of course to the light pollution. I used 60s subs with the Ha(7nm) - they are all Baader filters. I then took 20 darks, 30 Bias and 20 Flats for each filter and used DSS to register and stack the images, I used the APT Flats assistant with a LED flat screen and two sheets of A4 paper to take flats next morning. I used Registar to register all the resultant images and used Registar to combine the RGB files than went into Photoshop CC2017. I had to buy Registar after struggling to align everything in PS and combine RGB. SGL search to the rescue and Registar was highlighted as a very useful tool - and yes it took away the alignment pain I had been fighting for half a day. I have Gradient Exterminator and used it at various points in my processing, but there are still issues with gradients due to light pollution and possibly my flats. This was also my first time including Ha data, I followed Steve's, @steppenwolf process by mixing R and Ha in a new file and replacing the R channel in final image with the resultant R+Ha mix, phew... it takes time to understand all this stuff. Below is the full image and a cropped image of M31 and a pic of the equipment used, the stars look reasonably round, bottom left a bit out of shape, I think I got good focus with help of a Bahtinov mask and the APT focussing tools. The micro adjuster from Teleskop-Express was also a good recommendation from SGL members. I would be interested in comments around reducing the gradients, and of course any other pointers to improve next time.- 16 replies
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From the album: DSO, Nebula, Galaxies, Comets etc
M31 The Andromeda Galaxy Imaged using Skywatcher Equinox 80 PRO ED and Altair Hypercam 183C colour camera A total of 24 x 300 second exposures© vicky050373
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Hi guys!I finally managed to decide I'm done processing my insane photoproject of digging deep inside M31.Long story short: One picture of M31, 27megapixel 2x2 mosaic, +3 months of imaging in crappy weather, 18 separate nights, 534 separate exposures, +150 hours of processing, 1233 manually annotated objects inside M31.(images in the end of this post, lots of "bla bla" first)I had a great start last autumn with loads of clear nights, which made me think it be a quick stab to make a 2x2 mosaic (my first mosaic btw) of M 31 since my f.o.v is to narrow to capture M31 in one frame...But pretty much as soon as I started, the swedish weather turned into a mess which made me shoot M31 during 18(!) separate nights, during more than 3 months(!).I also spent countless of hours studying the M31 Atlas available online at: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/ANDROMEDA_Atlas/frames.htmlIt contains +40 annotated plates of M31 captured with Kitts Peak 4m telescope and contains +1000 globular clusters, open clusters, stellar ascossiations and dust-clouds inside M31.By looking at those charts, I manually annotated 1233 objects in my image, along with names & outlines (except for dustcloud-names, since it cluttered the image too much)Here's what I found within my image:232 Globular Clusters235 Open Clusters140 Stellar Assosciations626 Dust CloudsData captured using ACP + SchedulerCalibration was done in Maxim, registration & stacking + mosaic-merging done in PI, the rest in photoshop.Gear:Telescope: Orion Optics AG12Camera: QSI 583 wsg-8Mount: 10Micron GM 2000 HPSGuiding: UnguidedSummary of exposures:Lum: 364 x 180s / 1092 minutesRed: 39 x 300s / 195 minutesGreen : 36 x 300s / 180 minutesBlue : 43 x 300s / 215 minutesHa : 52 x 900s / 780 minutesTotal time: 2462 minutes / 41 hoursHere are a few 100% crops so you can appreciate the level of resolution and the hard work behind it.(note Hubbles famous Cepheid, marked as "Var 1")Also, here's one of the charts used for annotation along with a matching crop from my image:If you're not using a mobile device, I highly recommend following the links to my homepage where the image is presented in full resolution along with selectable annotation-layers containing the following:Globular ClustersOpen ClustersDark NebulaeStellar AssociationsGrid + DSO'sIt was really mind-boggling processing a image of this scale, realizing that all those fuzzy spots visible inside the galaxy are actually open clusters and globular clusters, along with Ha-regions and much more!Unfortunately mobile devices usually downscale the huge 27MP resolution images and have trouble with the annotation-layers, so if you're using a computer(highly recommended), click the following images to be taken to my homepage where you can select which layers of annotation to be displayed, as well as the choice of 3 different resolutions. Otherwise there are direct-links to all versions below the images in this thread.Direct-links to images, No annotation:http://www.grinderphoto.se/pics/Med_102.jpg - (1024px width)http://www.grinderphoto.se/pics/Large_102.jpg - (3500px width)http://www.grinderphoto.se/pics/Full_102.jpg - (+6000px width)Direct-links to images, Annotated:http://www.grinderphoto.se/pics/Med_102_Annotated.jpg - (1024px width)http://www.grinderphoto.se/pics/Large_102_Annotated.jpg - (3500px width)http://www.grinderphoto.se/pics/Full_102_Annotated.jpg - (+6000px width)Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoy exploring all the details in this fantastic galaxy!Best RegardsJonas Grindehttp://www.grinderphoto.se
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Messier 31 Andromeda Galaxy Distance from Earth - approx 2.5 million light years After spending ages getting a decent polar alignment, the clouds were on their way in so I only had a small window of opportunity remaining. This was my first real run with the new setup (minus the ST80 and ZWO ASI120 as i was having issues there) and I almost gave up. SO glad I didn't!! Focus was off a bit though I think and I've definitely over-processed EXIF: Nikon D5300 270mm f / 5.6 @ ISO 800 21 x 30 second subs Bortle 5 Stacked in Sequator. Very quick minor crop and global edits in LightRoom. No darks/flats/offsets
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This started on 10/31/17 I had set my 8SE up at around 7:00 pm Transparency: above average 4/5 Seeing: average 3/5 I viewed a number of objects with my 8SE: M31, M32, M110 was not able to see. M57, M27 are always available. M13, M92 sitting very pretty in a clearer patch of sky than usual to the west. I was early enough to catch some favorites, M8, M16, M17, M20, M21, M22, M23, and M24 I then took a break and when I came back I grabbed my binoculars, 10x50's. First I viewed Pleiades, then Hyades, then over to Mirach, Nu, Mu, and above that to M31. I couldn't see M110 or M32 in binos. I've been searching for Kembles Cascade with binoculars, which I've found with the 8SE, though you can only see two stars at a time at that magnification and narrower FOV. So I'm looking around the general vicinity below Cassiopeia, in Camelopardalis and eventually wander into Perseus and find: The Double Cluster with my binos. I slewed the 8SE over to NGC 884, and NGC 869 to confirmed that I had in fact found the double cluster in my 10x50's I finished my bino tour of the sky on the Coathanger Cluster. I have never viewed the Coathanger cluster through my telescope. Well, maybe once just like M45 and Hyades. I always use binoculars to look at these objects now. I finished the evening on M42 which I end up looking at for nearly an hour through both the binoculars and my 8SE
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From the album: Deep Sky II
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This is just a log of my observations last night from my balcony. It has quite a restricted view due to it being recessed so the floor above me gets in the way. It faces south-east-east and I have around 80-90 degrees of azimuth view. If you’re prepared to watch the constellations appear it is ok and put up with the streetlights on the paths it’s ok. I have places nearby where I can set up to get a better view of the sky but it’s summers and I could hear some people having a party in the park. I thought I’d leave them to it as it will be cold in the winter and the night time park will hopefully be empty! I was using my 102mm Mak on an eq2. I’d been hoping to have another attempt at the Ring Nebula in Lyra but the floor above me was getting in the way. I should have got out a bit sooner – with it not really getting dark enough until ~2330 and it going out of view for my viewing spot I’ve only got a short window of opportunity for this target at the moment. So I settled for Albireo. This was the first time I’d gone for this double in Cygnus and it’s a lovely sight. A warm orange spot with it’s hot blue partner. It’s not as hard to split as the Double double (which isn’t hard either but it’s the only double I’ve seen so far which I know the name of J ). I then decided to try and find M31 which isn’t visible to the naked eye for my location but the Andromeda constellation was easy to make out by following along from the belly of Pegasus. M31 proved a hard target to find at first. I’d initially started to use the two stars I could see that formed the waist of Andromeda which seemed from Stellarium could be used as a pointer up towards M31 but no amount of wriggling the scope whilst moving up worked so I consulted Stellarium again. Although I can’t see Polaris to polar align I can get a good enough polar alignment by pointing the polar axis north and the latitude for my location. So I could see that if I went up to the centre of the cross of Cygnus (Sadr), moved my declination up a couple of degrees and then scanned back with RA I might hit M31. Whilst getting my up and down mixed up on my declination axis, I happened across a star cluster which took me by surprise a bit. It seemed that I’d mistakenly found M29 after checking with Stellarium. After M29 I decided to put the scope in the right position I’d intended to scan back to M31 from Sadr in Cygnus. This approach didn’t help either! Back to the drawing board. I used the star near the head of Andromeda as a guide next and moved my declination up whilst giving the scope a wiggle and M31 came in to view. In my little Mak it was only the smudge of the centre but I was surprised how big the smudge was. I was expecting the core to appear smaller but I would estimate that I could see around 0.2 to 0.3 of a degree (I was using a 20mm Erfle which gives me ~1 degree in my scope). Having found M31 I was starting to notice more stars in the sky now. I could see the two brightest stars of Aries and the Triangulum so decided to attempt M33. I spent ages trying to find this but couldn’t do it. After doing some research today though it seems that M33 surface brightness is very low so maybe my scope is too small and I have to be a bit more patient when scanning the sky. The same research threw up the obvious question as to why I didn’t see M32. I should have been able to see it with M31 however I probably mistook it for a star. Now I know how to get M31 I’ll look out for it next time. My next target for the night was M34 as I felt this would be easy to find by scanning in RA from Almaak in Andromeda. Whilst lining up on Almaak I noticed this was double with a small companion. This was a double that I was going to put a name to! I’d seen a few without naming them but it’s so easy to find in Stellarium that I had no excuse although I was a bit thrown out when Stellarium didn’t show it as a double in ocular view. Some wiki research today confirmed this though and Almaak’s companion is a double itself but they are seperated by less than an arc second so not sure if I have the resolving power to try this when I go back to it. I found M34 after looking at the Almaak double. It wasn’t hard to find this time. Whilst the open clusters are nice and I like the way they jump out at you as you’re scanning across I must admit I preferred viewing M13 when I first found it. Even though I couldn’t really resolve stars in M13 I just found it a more exciting target. I suppose as it seems like a galaxy within a galaxy. I could now see Jupiter rising through some trees in the distance so tried to get the double cluster but I was just restricted by the floor above again and I could only see the southern half of Cassiopeia so I went to M45 which I could just see as a smudge 20 degrees or so above the horizon. There’s no way I can get all of the Pleiades in my FOV but it was fun scanning around it and all the other stars appear within it. Finally Jupiter had cleared the trees so I concentrated on this now. The seeing was quite bad, the transparency was getting worse (a haze was starting to develop around the planet) and Jupiter was still quite low.I found that my 10mm plossl was giving me a bit too much magnification and I was better of using my 15mm or my 20mm erfle with the barlow cap in the end to give ~100x magnification. Detail was hard to make out though and I was restricted to seeing 2 bands of brick colour on against the cream background. Unfortunately the moons were nicely spread out this time; I’d been hoping for a repeat of when I watched one of the rise from behind Jupiter a week ago. I’m looking forward to when Jupiter starts rising earlier in the autumn so I can view it higher in the sky to beat the seeing before the Sun rises. So that was last night on my balcony waiting for the earth to spin. Next week looks good my way for weather so hopefully I can repeat it soon.
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From the album: Galaxies
M31 - Andromeda Galaxy L= 52 x 600s R= 15 x 600s G= 15 x 600s B= 15 x 600s Equinox 80 NEQ6 Pro Atik 383L+ Taken on the nights of 11th,14th,15th,17th,18th and 19th August 2012 Captured with Artemis. PHD Guiding Stacked, aligned with Maxim DL Flats, Bias and Darks applied. Processed with Pixinsight, MaximDL, Images Plus and Photoshop CS3. -
M31 26x5m 3x10m 8x3m Aby 50 D Ea 21 F 56b Can ROS 1100D 300mm ISO800 F5 6 DSS preproc PS CS2 Final
AstroAndy posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Canon EOS 1100D Images
M31, designation NGC 224, the Andromeda Galaxy, with companion galaxies M32 (NGC 221, near), and M110 (NGC205, far),at about 2.5 lightyears from Earth. one of the best known galaxies to us. Shot w/ Canon EOS 1100D 300mm lens at ISO800, f/5.6, these are 26x5m, 3x10m and 6x3m esposures, calibrated w/ith 154 dark frames (about 50 for each exposure length, 56 bias, and 21 flats.-
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From the album: Alt-Az / NoEQ DSO challenge
M31 - Andromeda Galaxy on 2017-09-22 Gear: Olympus E-PL6 with OM-Zuiko 200mm/4 at F/5.4 and TS-Dydimium filter on Celestron NexStar SLT Capture: 60 lights (/80% keep) x 40s x 3200 ISO, 13 darks Sky: moonless, average (didn't get any SQM, was prb 18-19), 50km from Paris, France Processing: Regim 3.4, Fotoxx 12.01+ Edit: for full size see here: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/228101-the-no-eq-dso-challenge/?page=116#comment-3294377© Fabien COUTANT
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I guess this goes here. M31, shot under less than ideal conditions, towards a lit street with 3/4 of the moon up, 20x3m (1hr) at 75mm, cal. 31dfb, preproc. DSS, final workup PS CS2, PHD guiding w/ QHY5 Mono cam, capture with Backyard EOS.
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From the album: Stargazer33's Album
C8, CG5-GT, f6.3 focal reducer, Canon 1100D© 2013 Bryan Harrison
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I took a series of images of part of M31 early one evening last month while waiting for the target I wanted to rise above a tree. With 70min of exposures (as 14x5m), I have a quick image of the SW region of the galaxy (including NGC206) as below. I'm kinda looking to progress this further over time and it's potentially the first phases of a mosaic project - needs much more exposure, and colour, I reckon about 4 frames might cover it... but this is something for next season now. For fun, and while waiting for better weather, I've grabbed a copy of the Revised Bologna Catalogue (http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/Cat?cat=V%2F143&target=brief&) from VizieR and sorted it to include only the confirmed globular clusters. By outputting this in tab separated format, it's possible to use this within the Annotate script after a platesolve in Pixinsight to highlight what we have (or havent) got... Here's the quickly processed version (reduced in PI and processed TGV, Masked Stretch, Histogram Stretch, HDRMT and LHE and then Morphological Transform via a Star Mask to reduce the stars a little), and followed by an inverted (and slightly darkened) version with annotated display of the catalogue entries. There are about 170 globulars plotted here (there are 600 + in the catalogue as a whole) with the RBC identifier and quoted V magnitude in brackets - there's a couple of PGC galaxies there too Cheers EDIT: Should have added image details - all on FLT110 at ~ f5.7 with WO FR, ST2000XM @ -20C, Lum filter. All on Losmandy Titan.
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This image was captured with an ASI1600MM (Lx179@60and30s_RGBx20ea@60) It clearly needs more data but it was fun comparing this to the results I got with my OSC camera (QHY8) There isn't a huge difference - but there will be when I add Ha to this :-) Zoom in and you'll see black flecks across the image - not sure what's going on there as it appears on all subs (processed Flat/Bias - no need for darks - tested that) David
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From the album: Jon's images
7 x 135s lights, 2 x 135s darks, 11 x bias, total 15m44s, unguided, overprocessed M31. Just as a test to see if I'm learning the right way to do things. -
From the album: Deep Sky
Third attempt at M31 and my second reprocessing attempt. After watching Adam Block's excellent PS tutorial (Cosmic Canvas) I decided to incorporate two additional techniques into my PS workflow: Shadows and Highlights for increasing colour in the RGB image and HDR toning for increasing contrast in the synthetic luminance layer. LIGHTS: 42 x 300s + 23 x 600s; DARKS:30; BIAS: 100; FLATS:40. Taken with a Trius SX-26C and SW ED80. -
I've been trying for over a year to get a shot of M31 that showed more than just a fuzzy white blob and this is the closest I've come so far. It was taken on 8th December 2014 from light-polluted London, but it took such a lot of processing to get just this much out that I lost all objectivity with it and shelved it. But looking at it again I now don't think it's too bad for an early attempt. Obviously I've got much further to go before I get a shot I'd be truly happy with, but this is something of a milestone for me. It was taken with a 50mm lens and drizzled three times in DSS. 53 x 8 second exposures at 400 ISO and 11 dark frames.
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From the album: Slynxx Learning Curve
First proper try at capturing M31 30 x 75 sec Light Frames 10 x Dark Frames Canon 700D (Un-modded) Canon EF 75-300 ISO 1600 Stacked using Photoshop & the Median stacking process.-
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I completed a 4 panel M31 mosaic last year which was imaged with my SW 80 ED (see my album Deep Sky II). Whilst I was happy with the result, I was interested to see if I could enhance the core detail with additional subs from my new SW Esprit 150, which would give a higher resolution image. I decided that I would collect just new Lum data and then use a combination of RegiStar, PS and PI to overlay the new high resolution Lum data with the lower resolution data from the ED 80. Since the FOV with Esprit is about 1/4 that of the SW 80 and the fact that I didn't fancy creating a 16 panel Lum mosaic, I decided to focus only on the core of M31. I estimated that a 300s Lum exposure should be OK and this was confirmed by checking that the pixel level of the resultant image was below my cameras non-linear region. The result represents about 55 hours total integration time. M31 (SW ED 80 and Esprit 150) M31 crop Alan The details of the subs are below: ED 80 1 2 3 4 L 16 16 18 12 600 s R 19 12 15 13 600 s G 16 18 9 10 600 s B 18 19 13 16 600 s H 5 8 6 6 1800 s Esprit 150 (M31 core) L 27 300 s
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This is a shot I've wanted to try for years. It's an experiment in taking guided shots with an EQ mount and an assembly of lenses to get a focal length of 400mm which is perfect for framing this object. All in all, I'm quite pleased with the result. 53 x 2 minute exposures at 400mm f8 - 400 ISO (1 hour and 46 minutes) 22 x dark frames 23 x flat frames 20 x bias/offset frames (subtracted from flat frames only) Captured with APT Guided with PHD2 Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop Equipment: Skywatcher EQ5 Mount Orion 50mm Mini Guide Scope ZWO ASI120 MC imaging and guiding camera Canon 500D DSLR Takumar 70-20mm lens with x2 TeleConverter
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From the album: Wide-field (not barn-door)
Capture: 16 lights x 60s x 2500iso, 8 darks, Olympus E-PM1 with Chinon 200mm/3.5 @4 on Omegon EQ-300 tracking RA, neodymium filter Processing: Regim 3.3, Fotoxx 12.01, Gimp 2.8 Date: 2016-09-07 Place: Deep country 26km from Limoges, France© Fabien COUTANT
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Well this is my first ever DSO and too be honest i don't know if I can get anything extra out of it post process wise, I'm using CS5 and I've adjusted the levels and curves a touch, but can i get anything more out of it and also the stars at the edge of the frame seem to be warped how can I reduce or even remove this? Thanks in advance
