Andromeda Galaxy

[swlloyd3]

Ok so here is my first attempt at shooting this galaxy!

The image was taken by shooting lots of 45 seconds subs and some 40 second subs totaling around 1hr 45mins of data.

First time I have used flats as well and I'm amazed at the amount of trouble it saves

The reason for the 45 second subs was that I was getting apparent star trailing on the HEQ-5 PRO after about 50 seconds through the Megrez 72. I had planned on around 1-2min subs as I know this is more than capable unguided at this focal length even with a fairly good polar alignment and it was only until I had taken all the subs and packed away I think I realised my problem ... I hadn't put a counterweight on the telescope because my last few sessions had been using just a DSLR on a dovetail and didn't need the weight! Durrrrrr:icon_confused:

Still a fair few issues with this image in my opinion, colour (over blue I think, small issue with gradient in bottom right and maybe focusing issues) but I am happy with this image as a start

Anyway here is the shoot details:

Mount: HEQ-5 PRO - Unguided

Telescope: WO Megrez 72

Camera: Canon EOS 1000D + SW 2" LP FILTER

Lights: 144 x 45 seconds

Darks: 20

Flats: 38

ISO: 1600

Thanks for looking and all criticism is hugely welcome!

Ste.

LINK TO HIGHER RES VERSION : http://www.flickr.com/photos/58036646@N02/6194298833/in/photostream

[mazza83]

thats awesome!

[Hairycamel]

It's great to think that the amorphous blob I was looking at through my scope last night was that thing of beauty right there!

[Bumfluff]

wow thats great, I certainly won't be posting my first attempt at M31 after seeing that one.....

[Pete Presland]

there is some very nice detail there and its a very good start.definitely way too blue like you say,but thats nothing that you can sort out.

[MikeWilson]

Nice!

That's a superb first M31. Much better than any M31 I've done in a year :-)

I downloaded a copy of the file from Flickr and could immediately see that the red channel was heavily cut. Was it like this in your original stack? Have you tried using DSS to align colour channels during stacking?

All the best,

Mike

[swlloyd3]

Thanks for all the comments!

@mikewilson

No that was my doing... the subs came out basically red-washed for some reason and I am no good at getting colour balance into my images (need to learn some techniques) so I just clipped it and adjusted the blue/green channels in levels.... really not sure how to go about sorting out colour in images! Any good tutorials out there? I use photoshop!

Thanks.

Ste.

[Simms]

I had a quick play.

[NickK]

I had a quick play.

That's a great M31, especially for a first time!

I think 80% is in the alignment, 5% is in capturing and then a further 120% is in processing.. 205% - no wonder AP is hard!

[SteveKinder]

Really nice shot.

I have recently made the move to autoguiding and while I know its the right move your shot reminds me that you can get good results with lots of (relatively) short exposures, particularly on the bright targets.

How did you get youts Flats?

Cheers,

Steve.

[swlloyd3]

@Simms - that looks awesome... is that achieved by playing around with colour settings or something else?

@SteveKinder - My flats were taken by putting a photography tent cube over the end of the scope during the day, setting the camera to AP and just letting it fire off the shots... It has really improved some of the issues I was having in previous shots. For example when this image is really pushed you get hints of the problems coming through that would be apparent straight away when not using flats. So pretty pleased with them!

Thanks for all the comments! Really feel like im getting somewhere now! just need to concentrate on improving, especially colour balance!

Ste.

[Simms]

All I did was drop it into photoshop and run the Auto-colour command on it - seems to of levelled it out nicely - then just some local contrast adjustments to drop some of the gradient out.

[swlloyd3]

stupid me, Yeah just had a play and made it come out a lot better on the colours!

Thanks!

Ste.