Experimentation, Questions Raised!

[CKemu]

Gorgeously clear night, and typically wasted by technical issues - well not entirely, I did get to experiment.

Image #1 is just an overview of my desktop and the guiding at that time, however image #2 is more specific:

I've had nights where I have had pretty fantastic graphs, and in my mind the set up was pretty much identical to tonights setup, yet no matter how much "tweaking" I did, this was the result.

Now that is not say guiding was hideous beyond words, far from perfect, but the graph directly relates to:

ISO 800 @ 6m (360s) - Un-edited sub frame.

Any theories about the graph I got tonight, as I said, normally my set up produces very nice graphs.

Images 3 and 4 are of the Andromeda Galaxy. Both ISO 800. Image 3 is 60s, and image 4 is 180s. Now I don't have a focal reducer, so this is of the "core".

What I don't understand (noting that I understand guiding, or lack of will cause an issue), is why it looks utterly nothing like the "core" I've seen in so many shots, and why is it so dim, I expected something so bright to shine, with dust lanes and at least some subtle detail present.

Even with perfectly guided shots I seem to get nothing, either a massive bright fuzzy glow, or this.

Can anyone make some suggestions, or explain to me what I am seeing here. I've had better results from M51...

[JohnnyD333]

I think at ISO 800, at F10, with no focal reducer, at 108s, Andromeda is going to be dim. Even though I overexposed Andromeda a few days ago, I still got the dust lanes and a nice shape. Your Dumbbell looks good, did you take any shots of Andromeda at 360sec? I think with a focal reducer and some processing you will get great shots. Even your shots of Andromeda aren't terrible, you just need more exposure (the focal reducer will help).

[TFC]

I'm no expert, but looking at the histogram for your Andromeda shots, they are underexposed. I tried tweeking them in PS, but my feeble efforts showd no increase in detail.

They also show noticeable star trailing.

Tony

[Digz]

It looks like your first shot is slightly OOF. As for M31 it is underexposed. I think you will need more than 3min subs to start to bring out detail.

As for the guiding graph Im not sure what would cause this. Was it windy? Were you moving about next to your scope?