First stab at M31 - unguided

[rocketandroll]

Hi folks...

Ok, well, technically, having tried shooting it through my 200mm lens a couple of times I guess this is my 3rd stab, but it's my first proper attempt at this through a scope.

So... this is also the first ever image I've taken subs for on two seperate nights and from two different locations.

I got 45 mins of good subs from Kelling last weekend before the cloud rolled back in... then shot about another 70 mins of good subs this week from my carpark imaging site through the nasty haze.

I tried combining the whole lot in DSS but the result was absolutely ghastly no matter what stacking method I used. In the end I stacked the Kelling data and the local data seperately then stacked the two resulting images... this finally resulted in something that looked fairly good.

The noise levels aren't great but after a day of processing I am at a stage where I think I'm happy to throw my towel into the ring and say this is my M31 for this year :-)

So... this is a total of just under 2 hrs of 90 second subs at ISO800, unguided. Taken with the Megrez 72 and Eos 500D on a HEQ5-Pro.

Hope it's not too ghastly!

I think, realistically, this is now a target I'll next tackle with guiding next year... unless I suddenly get it all up and running in the next month or so.

Cheers for looking!

Ben

[foundaplanet]

That's a damned good image there rocketandroll..

[rocketandroll]

Cheers mate.... well, it's certainly a million times better than the ghastly 1st stab I had at just processing the 45mins I got from Kelling... which I didn't even post here, just in the Kelling thread :-)

I actually bothered to do a seperate stacked layer for the core this time which has made a big difference.

Anyway, it's still grainy, but only longer subs will fix that I think.

Cheers :-)

Ben

[carastro]

Well done Ben, very nice. Colours are a bit weird but these can be adjusted.

I had the same experience stacking images over multiple nights in DSS, I found the only way that worked was as you say to stack each night separately and then stack the stacks.

Carole

[libraryman]

Looks better than my first proper stab, and i was guiding!

aaah...stacking the stacks... so thats how to do it?

Ray

[rocketandroll]

Well done Ben, very nice. Colours are a bit weird but these can be adjusted.

I had the same experience stacking images over multiple nights in DSS, I found the only way that worked was as you say to stack each night separately and then stack the stacks.

Carole

Cheers Carole

Yeah, it's one of those things where I've seen a LOT of variations on what colour it should be, but the majority seem to show the outer spiral arms in a blueish colour and the core more yellowy.

Mine is perhaps a little purple... but when I stacked it it came out bright red for some reason?!!!

Might have a further play with the colours.

Ben

[peter shah]

super detail and no easy task unguided, i agree colour needs a bit of attention seems on the purple side especially in the outer areas

[Deneb]

send me your subs....

Nadeem.

[rocketandroll]

Ok, had a play with the colours.... this has taken some of th purple out, looks a little more natural I think, though it has messed with the star colours a bit unfortunately... the feinter ones are all blue now :-)

Anyway, interested to know what people think looks a natural colour for this :-)

Ben

[rocketandroll]

send me your subs....

Nadeem.

Hi Nadeem

Do you mean the actual raw subs, or the two combined stacks?

If the former, I warn you that's about 2gb of data!!!!!

Ben

[Deneb]

The Raw subs please...uploaded to something like dropbox, then pm me the link...

[rocketandroll]

Thanks for the offer Nadeem but I may have to just post you a CD :-)

I have a awful connection here and at it's current speed I just worked out that uploading 72 X 18 megapixel subs, 22 18 megapixel darks and 24 18 megapixel flats would take me approximately seven hours :-)

Can we take a rain check on that, as much as I'd love you to have a stab at processing it as you are the king of unguided :-)

Ben

[Deneb]

no problem, but the offers still there if you want it ! Soon to return to the Unguided Way ....

[SJJ]

Very nice image. Far better than my attempts so far!

[rocketandroll]

no problem, but the offers still there if you want it ! Soon to return to the Unguided Way ....

well, if your happy for me to, a cd or two may be a viable bet... uploading it all anywhere would be a total mare!

maybe drop me a pm some time and I'll post it over... would certainly be good to see what someone with a bit.more experience could get out of it!

You really going back to unguided? I thought that was a one way street?! :-)

I do however enjoy the simplicity of just aligning the mount, pointing it at something and then just leaving it snapping away.

trying to use the Synguider, camera and dew strips at the same time was more like an exercise in cable loom management than astronomy!

Ben

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[Cordulegaster]

Its a nice image. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Cloudwatcher]

Anyway, interested to know what people think looks a natural colour for this :-)

Ben

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I think it would look a bit more 'natural' with saturation reduced in the galaxy............Oh yes and flipped vertically.......but that's just me....